NTL€  BR6KDW1NN6RS 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRAHY,  LOS  AMGELtt 


by  Catherine  <®tom, 


TEN  DOLLARS  ENOUGH.  KEEPING  HOUSE 
WELL  ON  TEN  DOLLARS  A  WEEK.  i6mo, 
$1.00. 

GENTLE    BREADWINNERS.      i6mo,  $1.00. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK. 


GENTLE    BREADWINNERS 


THE  STORY  OF  ONE    OF  THEM 


BY 


CATHERINE   OWEN, 

AUTHOR  OF  "TEN  DOLLARS  ENOUGH,"  ETC. 


r 


0 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 


1888 


Copyright,  1887, 
BY  HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge: 
Eectrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


To 
MRS.  EDWARD  WARING, 

WHO  WOULD   SUCCEED 
IN  EVERYTHING  SHE   MIGHT  UNDERTAKE   TO   DO, 

AND  IS  EVER  READY  TO  HELP 
THOSE   WHO  WOULD  HELP  THEMSELVES, 

QLtys  little  Book 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED. 


21318C8 


PREFACE. 


THIS  little  book  does  not  pretend  to  put 
an  end  to  the  distresses  of  indigent  gentle- 
women. It  only  tells  the  story  of  an  effort 
to  earn  a  living  actually  made  with  a  suc- 
cessful result,  under  far  more  difficulties 
than  could  be  detailed  in  so  short  a  space. 

If  there  is  any  moral  to  be  drawn  from 
this  true  tale,  it  is  that  pluck,  perseverance, 
and  punctuality  will  succeed,  where  good  in- 
tention and  a  faint  heart,  or  brilliant  abili- 
ties and  lack  of  perseverance,  will  surely  fail. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

THE  QUESTION  OF  A  LIVELIHOOD         ...        7 

CHAPTER  II. 

MRS.  BEVAN'S  PONES.  —  DOROTHY  AS  A  DRESS- 
MAKER   20 

CHAPTER  III. 
DOROTHY  TRIES  A  NEW  BUSINESS        ...      34 

CHAPTER  IV. 

FRENCH  ICING.  —  GENOA  CAKE.  —  STUMBLING- 
BLOCKS  IN  DOROTHY'S  WAY  ....  48 

CHAPTER  V. 

MACAROONS.  —  VENETIAN  CAKES.  —  CUCUMBER 
RAGOUT.  —  AMERICAN  WALNUT  CATSUP.  — 
CANNED  APPLE  SAUCE 62 

CHAPTER  VI. 
NEW  IDEAS  AND  NEW  OPENINGS.        ...      77 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MINCE  MEAT.  —  MINCE  PIES.  —  CANDIED  LEMON. 

—  ORANGE  PEEL      .  ....      90 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
GATEAU    DE    Riz.  —  BEVANS.  —  BOUCHE'ES    DE 

DAMES,  ETC 102 

CHAPTER  IX 
PORTABLE  CHICKEN    BKOTH   AND    CONSOMME*. — 

SPANISH  MACAROONS. — VANILLA  PASTE       .     115 

CHAPTER  X. 

EXPERIMENTS  AND  PERPLEXITIES         .        .         .     129 

CHAPTER  XI. 
CANDY -MAKING.  —  CAPRICES    OF    SUGAR    AND 

SYBUP.  —  FAILURES,  AND  HOW  TO  AVOID  THEM    143 

CHAPTER  XII. 
DOROTHY   WINS  A  HOME  AND  A   HUSBAND. — 

MRS.  OAKLAND  AS  A  BUSINESS  WOMAN        .    152 


CONTENTS   OF  DOROTHY'S  NOTE-BOOK. 

MOCK  HAGGIS.  — STUFFED  LAMB'S  OR  SHEEP'S  HEART. 
—  HASHED  LIVER.  —  BEEF  HEART  ROASTED.  — 
STEWED  KNUCKLE  OF  VEAL.  —  BRAISED  BEEF.  — 
PEA  SOUP  WITHOUT  MEAT.  —  To  FRY  BREAD.  —  CEL- 
ERY SOUP.  —  CUCUMBER  SOUP.  —  POTATO  HASH.  — 
MRS.  BE  VAN'S  CREAM  TOAST.  — CHEESE  PUDDING. — 
BOTTLED  MIXED  SPICE  165-183 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  QUESTION   OF  A   LIVELIHOOD. 

"  DOROTHY,  what  can  we  do  ?  " 
It  was  a  question  that  had  risen  to  the 
lips  of  the  speaker  many  times  that  week, 
and  each  time  it  was  asked  in  a  tone  of 
deeper  dejection,  only  to  be  answered  by 
Dorothy  with  the  same,  "  I  can't  tell,  May  ; 
but  something  has  to  be  done." 

This  time  she  added  :  "  And  very  soon." 
Their  father  had  died  a  few  days  before, 
and  instead  of  the  fortune  he  was  supposed 
to  leave  behind  him  there  was  not  a  dollar. 
Unfortunate  speculation  had  ruined  him, 
and  his  efforts  to  conceal  the  wreck  for  a 
few  months  had  eaten  up  the  salvage  there 
might  have  been ;  so  that  to  satisfy  the 


8  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

tradesmen's  debts  the  furniture  had  to  be 
sold ;  and  not  one  word  of  warning  had  been 
given  to  the  girls,  who  were  now  left  with 
handsome  wardrobes  of  a  kind  that  would 
be  of  very  little  use  in  the  life  they  might 
be  forced  to  lead  for  the  future,  a  little 
jewelry,  and  not  twenty  dollars  to  call  their 
own,  and  oh,  so  little  preparation  of  any 
kind  for  the  future  before  them. 

Dorothy  had  been  her  father's  house- 
keeper ever  since  she  was  seventeen.  She 
was  now  twenty-five,  and  had  prided  herself 
far  more  on  the  perfect  ordering  of  her 
father's  house  than  on  the  accomplishments 
usual  to  ladies  of  her  social  position.  She 
could  play  a  little,  and  paint  also  a  little, 
and  spoke  French  with  a  New  York  accent, 
of  which  she  was  quite  aware ;  one  good 
point  about  Dorothy,  she  knew  her  limita- 
tions. 

May  was  very  pretty,  and  five  years 
younger.  She  looked  fragile,  yet  really  was 
not  so ;  Dorothy  had  always  so  petted  and 
loved  her  that  she  could  not  bear  to  think 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  9 

of  May  battling  alone.  But  for  this  she 
would  have  settled  that  the  one  thing  for 
her  to  do  would  be  to  seek  a  position  as 
housekeeper.  Not  an  easy  thing  to  find,  yet 
it  would  have  been  worth  the  effort,  if  she 
could  have  made  up  her  mind  to  leave 
May. 

As  for  the  latter,  she  felt  if  Dodo  would 
only  decide,  there  would  be  very  little  diffi- 
culty about  their  making  a  living.  She 
could  paint,  she  was  quite  sure,  a  great  deal 
better  than  many  people.  Had  n't  all  their 
friends  always  admired  her  work  ?  Would 
not  they  be  glad  to  buy  it  now,  if  Dorothy 
would  give  her  a  little  encouragement  in- 
stead of  always  saying :  — 

"  My  dear  May,  it  is  no  use  to  think  of 
it ;  you  paint  prettily  enough  for  an  ama- 
teur, and  a  few  people  who  want  to  bestow 
charity  on  us  delicately "  —  (Dorothy's 
lips  curled)  "would  take  your  work,  but 
that  would  only  be  for  a  time  ;  and  for 
Heaven's  sake  let  us  steer  clear  of  charity, 
even  if  we  have  to  become  kitchen  maids." 


10  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  Oh,  Dorothy,  how  horrid  !  "  May's 
eyes  filled  with  tears.  She  thought  Dorothy, 
dear  and  good  as  she  was,  rather  unjust. 

"  Dear  Dorothy  knows  so  little  of  art ; 
she  is  not  a  good  judge,"  she  thought. 

And  when  the  thought  was  hinted,  Dor- 
othy said  gravely :  — 

"  May,  I  have  thought  of  these  things 
with  regard  to  other  people,  never  supposing 
the  result  of  my  thoughts  could  have  any 
bearing  on  my  life  or  yours.  I  have  known 
and  tried  to  help  several  reduced  young 
ladies,  but  have  always  noticed  one  fact,  that 
very  few  could  do  one  thing  thoroughly 
well,  nor  could  they  be  induced  to  see  that 
they  must  do  it  so,  or  their  efforts  would 
fail.  So  far  as  I  know,  neither  I  nor  you 
can  do  anything,  not  even  plain  sewing, 
better  than  the  average,  and  average  work 
will  be  starvation,  or,  what 's  worse,  genteel 
begging.  No  one  shall  pay  me  for  work 
that  is  not  as  good  as  he  can  buy  elsewhere  ' 
for  the  same  money.  What  I  want  is  time 
to  learn  one  thing  well  —  a  shelter  while  I 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  11 

can  perfect  myself  in  something,  if  it  is 
only  dressmaking." 

"  Oh,  Dodo  "  — 

"  I  am  serious.  I  have  rather  a  knack  at 
draping  and  fitting.  I  dare  say  even  now  I 
could  make  a  dress  as  well  as  a  fifth-rate 
dressmaker.  It  is  true  that  would  only 
bring  us  dry  bread,  so  slow  as  I  should  be 
at  the  unaccustomed  work,  but  I  think  in 
six  months  I  could  become  expert.  You 
could  help,  and  we  could  be  together :  now 
how  to  live  that  six  months  !  " 

It  must  not  be  supposed  there  were  no 
well-meaning  friends  at  hand  to  advise  the 
destitute  girls,  or  to  offer  them  more  sub- 
stantial aid  than  advice,  but  this  was  not 
what  Dorothy  wanted.  To  accept  shelter 
with  prosperous  people  to  whom  she  and 
her  sister  could  be  of  no  use  whatever  in 
return,  was  something  she  prayed  to  be 
spared. 

"  My  dears,"  said  the  rector's  wife,  "  I 
am  sure  I  try  to  think  of  some  plan  night 
and  day.  If  I  could  only  hear  of  some  one 


12  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

needing  a  companion  or  governess  !  I  have 
written  everywhere,  and  yet  I  have  so  often 
known  of  nice  positions  and  none  to  fill 
them,  but  it 's  always  so  !  " 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Emery,  we  are  neither  of  us 
fitted  for  governessing,  and  I  fear  there  is 
little  hope  of  finding  a  position  as  compan- 
ion, such  places  are  so  rare.  In  fact,  I  am 
willing  to  do  something  much  more  plebeian. 
Gentility  shall  not  restrain  me,  but  I  am  not 
fitted  for  anything  at  all." 

"  Well,  that  is  so  sensible,  Dorothy. 
There  are  so  many  nice  things  if  you  do  not 
let  pride  stand  in  the  way ;  something  in  a 
dentist's  office  now,  or  at  a  photographer's. 
Something  surely  will  turn  up!  " 

"  I  fear  such  places  also  are  very  rare ; 
if  I  could  only  induce  some  store  to  give 
me  just  enough  to  live,  while  I  learn  to  be 
of  use  —  but  unfortunately  stores  are  not 
kept  for  missionary  purposes.  Oh,  what  a 
humiliation  it  is  to  think,  Mrs.  Emery,  that 
we  two  girls,  brought  up  with  all  advan- 
tages, are  not  fit  to  earn  a  dollar  !  Oh,  if 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  13 

I  ever  have  daughters  they  shall  learn  to  do 
one  thing  well." 

That  evening,  however,  brought  help 
from  an  unexpected  quarter. 

"  A  letter  from  poor  Aunty  Be  van,"  said 
May,  handing  it  to  Dorothy,  who  opened  it 
and  read  :  — 

DEAREST  GIRLS,  —  I  have  been  thinking 
about  you  and  your  affairs  ever  since  I 
knew  of  them :  thinking  is  n't  much  good  if 
one  cannot  help ;  but  since  your  letter  came 
telling  me  you  are  willing  to  work  at  any- 
thing, I  have  decided  to  make  a  suggestion. 
It  is  that  you  and  May  should  come  to  us 
till  something  turns  up.  You  may  feel  quite 
independent,  for  you  could  both  more  than 
earn  your  board  by  what  you  could  do  to  help. 
You  know  my  eyesight  is  very  bad  ;  I  can't 
sew.  Your  uncle  is  too  great  an  invalid  to 
do  much,  and  to  have  a  young  pair  of  eyes 
and  hands  would  be  a  great  deal  to  us.  But 
—  and  I  beg  you  to  take  this  "but"  into 
consideration  —  we  are  far  poorer,  live  more 
plainly,  than  you  can  imagine.  You  knew 
we  were  poor,  but  not  how  poor  —  that, 
without  much  intention,  I  have  always  con- 


14  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

cealed.  If  you  come  to  us  you  would  see 
for  yourselves.  Of  such  food  as  there  is, 
there 's  plenty,  but  it  is  excessively  plain, 
indeed ;  just  what  we  can  raise ;  such  things 
as  we  can't  produce  we  go  without.  Now, 
can  you  and  May  face  such  a  life  ?  You 
will  not  be  tied  in  any  way,  and  can  leave 
us  the  moment  something  better  turns  up. 
Think  it  over  and  let  me  know. 
Your  affectionate  aunt, 

MARGARET  BEVAN. 

"  Oh,  poor  Aunt  Bevaii,  what  a  terrible 
life  for  her  !  "  cried  May. 

"  Yes ;  yet,  May,  this  is  the  first  thing  that 
seems  to  offer  a  gleam  of  light  to  me." 

May  shivered. 

"  Do  you  think  we  could  stand  it  ?  " 

"  Easily,"  said  Dorothy.  "  Aunt  has 
been  as  gently  bred  as  we.  I  plainly  see 
we  really  need  not  be  dependent  there,  and 
I  think,  May,  we  must  be  thankful  for  such 
a  refuge  while  we  try  to  solve  some  way  of 
living." 

A  week  later  found  the  two  Miss  For- 
tescues  under  their  aunt's  roof. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  15 

Although  I  want  to  hurry  over  the  part 
of  my  story  which  tells  only  of  Dorothy's 
initial  steps  and  her  false  starts  before  she 
found  out  the  secret,  in  which  all  women 
placed  in  her  position  may  be  interested,  I 
yet  must  explain  exactly  how  Mrs.  Bevau 
lived,  in  order  that  the  narrative  of  Doro- 
thy's struggle  may  be  understood. 

The  Bevans  had  once  been  wealthy.  Then 
Mr.  Bevan  had  speculated  and  lost  every- 
thing but  some  farming  land  about  twenty- 
five  miles  from  the  city  and  three  from  the 
railroad.  On  the  land  was  an  old  house, 
and  as  neither  he  nor  his  wife  understood 
very  much  about  country  life,  he  had  tried 
to  sell  the  property,  even  for  half  its  value  ; 
but,  finding  no  customer  appeared,  they 
went  out  to  live  on  the  farm  until  a  customer 
should  appear. 

This  was  ten  years  ago.  They  were  still 
at  the  comfortless  place,  and  now  little 
likely  to  leave  it.  For  two  years  Mr.  Bevan 
had  some  trouble  with  his  knee  and  had  be- 
come very  lame.  Mrs.  Bevan  had  kept  up 


16  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

relations  with  the  outside  world  by  means  of 
correspondence,  but  she  rarely  had  visitors ; 
even  her  nieces  had  only  been  to  the  place 
once,  and  left  it  with  a  profound  pity  for 
their  poor  aunt.  Mrs.  Bevan's  one  amuse- 
ment, and  —  considering  how  much  a  dollar 
was  to  her  —  her  one  extravagance,  was  writ- 
ing letters  to  some  old  friends,  some  of  whom 
she  visited  occasionally. 

It  was  early  spring  when  the  girls  arrived, 
and  all  out-doors  wore  its  best  aspect.  The 
trees  were  just  putting  forth  tender  green 
leaflets  ;  everything  in  nature  seemed  awak- 
ening and  full  of  promise,  but  once  inside 
the  house,  what  a  contrast !  Mr.  Bevan  had 
never  had  means  to  put  it  into  proper  order, 
and  it  was  plainly  the  abode  of  extreme 
poverty ;  yet  the  furniture,  some  of  it  very 
handsome  still,  redeemed  it  from  sordid 
ugliness,  even  though  it  made  the  walls  of 
broken  plaster  more  hideous.  The  floors 
were  nearly  all  uncarpeted. 

But  whatever  was  lacking  in  comfort  was 
amply  made  up  in  the  warm  welcome  from 
Mrs.  Bevan,  who  said  as  she  kissed  them,  — 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  17 

"  Bless  you,  dear  girls ;  I  shall  begin  to 
live,  now  you  are  here." 

A  feeling  of  real  pleasure  filled  Dorothy's 
heart,  for,  although  she  had  never  thought 
of  it  before,  she  could  see  how  they  might 
brighten  the  days  of  the  lonely  woman. 

"  Dorothy,  I  have  n't  killed  a  chicken  for 
you,  as  I  might  have  done,  for  we  have  them, 
but  I  thought  it  best  to  have  just  our  usual 
tea,"  said  Mrs.  Bevan  when  they  met  at 
table. 

"  Thank  you,  aunt ;  I  am  glad  you  did, 
and  oh,  how  fresh  and  nice  it  all  looks !  " 

The  tea  was  neatly  laid  with  pretty  china 
and  old-fashioned  silver.  There  was  abun- 
dance of  milk  and  yellow  butter,  a  dish  of 
watercress  from  the  spring,  curds,  and  a  little 
pitcher  of  cream  ;  for,  farmers  as  they  were 
(in  a  very  small  way),  cream  was  one  of  the 
luxuries  and  had  to  be  sparely  used.  On 
the  bread  board  was  a  dark-looking  loaf  of 
bread,  and  by  an  appetizing  odor  of  baking 
it  was  evident  there  was  some  form  of  hot 
bread  to  be  expected. 


18  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  Will  you  cut  the  bread,  Dorothy?  It 
is  rye  bread;  we  use  a  good  deal  of  rye 
bread,  because  our  land  isn't  suitable  for 
growing  wheat  "  — 

"  Rye  bread,  aunt !  but  it  is  delicious. 
I  've  always  had  a  horror  of  rye  bread,  be- 
cause I  have  seen  it  when  it  seemed  solid, 
and  other  times  it  was  sour ;  but  this  is 
sweeter  than  any  bread  I  ever  ate." 

"Some  people  like  it  very  solid.  I  like 
mine  to  be  just  the  same  as  wheaten  bread." 
Mrs.  Bevan  left  the  table  as  she  spoke,  and 
went  to  the  kitchen.  She  returned  with  a 
dish  of  brown,  crisp  cakes  about  half  an 
inch  thick  and  as  large  as  the  top  of  a  tea- 
cup. 

"  What  are  these,  aunty  ?  "  asked  Doro- 
thy, as  she  buttered  one,  her  housewifely 
instinct  on  the  alert  for  information. 

"  Buttermilk  pones  I  call  them  ;  you  must 
like  them." 

"  Then  I  want  the  recipe,  aunty,  for  my 
note-book." 

Perhaps  some  of  those  who,  I  hope,  may 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  19 

become  Dorothy's  friends  will  like  also  to 
know  a  few  of  Mrs.  Sevan's  very  frugal 
dishes,  and  as  we  go  with  her  on  her  road 
to  independence  I  will  transcribe  here  and 
there  a  simple  recipe  by  which  her  aunt 
contrived  to  vary  and  render  appetizing  a 
diet  that  was  almost  wholly  vegetarian. 
Those  for  whom  happily  no  necessity  for 
such  extreme  economy  exists  may  pass  them 
by  and  wait  for  better  things. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MRS.  BEVAN'S  PONES.  —  DOROTHY  AS  A  DRESS- 
MAKER. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say,  aunt,  that  there 
were  no  eggs  in  those  pones  ? "  said  Doro- 
thy as  she  dotted  the  i's  and  crossed  the  t's 
of  the  recipe  she  had  just  written  in  her 
neat  little  note-book. 

"  No  eggs,  my  dear ;  in  winter  I  use  as 
few  eggs  as  possible,  because  they  fetch  a 
high  price,  and  as  ready  money  is  so  scarce 
I  am  glad  of  anything  that  will  add  to  it,  so 
I  sell  the  eggs  and  have  a  few  of  what  I 
call  winter  recipes,  which  do  not  require 
eggs.  Well,  I  '11  read  this  over  to  see  if 
it's  right." 

"  BUTTERMILK  PONES.  —  To  every  pint 
of  rich  buttermilk,  not  too  sour,  allow  one 
small  teaspoonful  of  soda  and  three  coffee 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  21 

cupfuls  of  cornmeal.  Put  the  soda  in  the 
bowl,  break  all  lumps,  then  pour  the  but- 
termilk into  it ;  stir  and  add  the  cornmeal 
with  a  small  teaspoonful  of  salt.  Taste 
the  batter ;  if  still  sour  add  a  very  little 
more  soda;  stir  briskly.  Have  the  griddle 
hot,  and  with  rather  more  grease  upon  it 
than  for  cakes.  Drop  the  batter  from  a 
spoon  until  half  an  inch  thick.  When 
brown  on  one  side  turn  and  bake  the  other. 
Split  and  butter  as  muffins  and  serve  while 
very  hot." 

"  Yes,  you  have  it  right,  but  you  may  add 
that  if  sweetening  is  liked  two  tablespoon- 
fuls  of  molasses  may  be  added.  This  makes 
the  crust  nicer." 

"  Thank  you,  aunt.  This  is  my  first 
lesson  in  real  economical  housekeeping. 
Cooking  was  rather  a  hobby  of  mine,  you 
know,  and  I  can  make  a  few  good  things, 
but  they  all  cost  a  good  deal." 

"  Well,  my  dear,  to  have  real  good  things 
you  must  have  the  materials  for  them,  but 
some  very  nice  ones  may  be  made  more  eco- 


22  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

nomically  than  you  would  think,  by  mixing 
in  a  little  brains." 

The  next  day  Dorothy  and  May  began 
their  new  life  in  earnest,  and  the  difference 
between  the  two  sisters  came  out  strongly 
in  a  conversation  they  had  while  dressing. 
May  was  yawning  sleepily. 

"  Dorothy,  it 's  awful  getting  up  and 
dressing  at  this  hour.  I  don't  believe  aunt 
expects  us  to." 

"  But,  May,  you  surely  could  n't  lie  in 
bed  and  let  her  get  our  breakfast  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  don't  know ;  we  can  help  in 
other  ways.  She  has  to  get  breakfast,  you 
know,  anyhow." 

"  Do  as  you  like,  May.  I  hate  early  ris- 
ing, but  I  should  hate  still  more  to  walk 
into  the  breakfast  -  room  as  if  I  were  a 
boarder." 

"  Oh,  Dorothy,  you  have  such  high-flown 
notions."  May  was  very  proud  of  Dorothy, 
but  she  always  thought  she  lacked  common 
sense,  although  she  was  clever. 

She   was   more    convinced   of   this   than 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  23 

ever  when  Dorothy  insisted  on  washing  the 
dishes,  pots  and  all.  At  this  May  rebelled  ; 
she  dusted  the  little  sitting-room,  then  took 
her  seat  in  it,  as  Mrs.  Bevan  entreated  Dor- 
othy also  to  do.  May  said  she  would  assist 
in  the  light  work,  and  meanwhile  she  was 
going  to  try  and  make  a  little  money,  with 
rather  a  rebuking  air  to  Dorothy,  as  she 
spread  her  paints  before  her  industriously. 

"  I  '11  come  too,  later,"  said  her  sister. 

Dorothy  found  the  preparing  of  the  noon- 
day meal  in  this  frugal  house  was  some- 
thing very  different  from  dinner  getting  in 
any  other  she  had  known.  The  teeming  gar- 
den was  gone  over,  and  whatever  was  ready 
was  brought  in  to  cook.  Mr.  Bevan  grew 
very  little  for  market,  his  land  was  very 
poor  except  the  garden  plot,  and  he  under- 
stood nothing  of  farming.  He  just  man- 
aged to  raise  fodder,  a  little  corn  and  rye, 
and  the  family  vegetables.  The  prepara- 
tion of  these  Dorothy  soon  found  took  as 
much  time  as  cooking  a  fine  dinner,  for 
what  they  lacked  in  meat  Mrs.  Bevan  tried 


24  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

to  make  up  for  by  savory  and  careful  cook- 
ing. 

"I  am  glad  you  came  just  as  the  early 
vegetables  are  coming  on,"  she  said.  "  We 
have  the  earliest  peas  about,  and  the  first 
are  just  ready  to  pull,  and  we  will  have  a 
piece  of  shoulder  boiled  to  eat  with  them." 

Dorothy  felt  the  shoulder  was  in  honor 
of  them,  but  said  nothing.  After  she  had 
turned  her  hand  to  everything  with  Mrs. 
Bevan,  and  the  work  was  about  done  she 
said :  — 

"Now,  aunt,  you  said  you  had  sewing. 
I  am  ready  and  eager  for  it." 

"  My  dear  child,  it 's  true  I  've  a  good 
many  things  to  make  over,  but  I  'm  afraid 
you  won't  find  it  pleasant  work." 

"Any  work  will  be  pleasant  that  will 
help  you,  aunt." 

"  Then  I  '11  get  them  down,  —  my  dresses, 
I  mean,  —  for  I  'm  in  great  need  of  some- 
thing to  wear." 

Reader,  did  you  ever  know  an  elderly 
gentlewoman,  with  ancient  dresses,  fine  in 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  25 

quality,  which  she  reverenced,  and  which 
she  wanted  made  into  present  style?  For 
years  she  may  have  ignored  the  fashion, 
but  now  that  she  has  decided  to  put  scissors 
to  these  precious  relics  they  must  be  made 
into  garments  most  stylish  and  modern. 

Very  timidly,  yet  showing  plainly  an  ar- 
dent desire,  did  elderly  Mrs.  Bevan  inti- 
mate that  she  would  like  those  dresses  "  a 
bit  stylish,"  something  like  Dorothy's  own, 
which  was  "so  plain  and  simple"  she  had 
fallen  in  love  with  it  as  just  the  thing. 

Dorothy's  was  a  princess  dress,  beauti- 
fully cut  but  severely  plain.  She  looked  at 
her  aunt,  whose  form  was  attenuated  and 
utterly  guiltless  of  contour.  Could  she 
mean  it  ? 

"  You  would  like,  of  course,  some  sort  of 
trimming  about  the  upper  part?" 

"  Well,  dear,  1  was  thinking  not.  I  Ve 
been  thinking  for  months  how  I  'd  have 
these  made,  but  now  I've  seen  yours,  my 
mind's  made  up  —  if  you  don't  mind  an 
old  woman  copying  you,"  she  said  hastily. 


26  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

This  decided  it,  but,  oh !  the  despair  with 
which  Dorothy  turned  over  the  material! 
Never  mind;  at  least  one  princess  dress 
must  come  out  of  that  gray  silk,  and  Doro- 
thy remembered  a  lace  fichu  in  her  trunk. 
If  her  aunt  should  recognize  that  the  dress 
was  hardly  suited  to  her  style  she  would  give 
it  to  her  and  a  graceful  result  would  be  at- 
tained. 

Never  will  Dorothy  forget  the  trying  on 
of  that  dress,  the  disappointed  look  in  dear, 
innocent  Aunt  Bevan's  eyes  as  she  found 
that,  do  what  Dorothy  would  to  make  it  fit, 
it  hung  only  in  straight  lines.  To  get  pre- 
sentable breadths  of  silk  to  make  this  fail- 
ure, poor  Dorothy  had  planned  and  joined 
(invisibly,  as  she  hoped)  till  her  back  and 
head  ached.  After  this  Mrs.  Bevan  said, 
resignedly :  "  I  expect,  Dodo,  it  takes  a 
pretty  smart  hand  to  that  style  of  dress,  so 
don't  worry  yourself  about  it ;  just  do  any- 
thing to  make  it  decent." 

Dorothy,  left  to  her  own  devices,  went  to 
work,  and  by  dint  of  ingenuity  and  infinite 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  27 

labor  in  a  couple  of  months  Mrs.  Bevan's 
wardrobe  was  renovated. 

Dorothy  had  from  the  first  set  herself 
against  swelling  the  army  of  women  who 
struggle  to  gain  their  bread  genteelly.  She 
meant  to  use  the  shelter  she  had  to  enable 
her  to  become  more  expert  at  dressmaking. 
True,  she  was  under  the  disadvantage  of  be- 
ing out  of  the  city,  yet  in  the  neighboring 
town  there  were  fashionable  women  hand- 
somely dressed,  stores  where  there  were  pat- 
terns, and  she  could  write  for  other  things. 

Mrs.  Be  van,  although  she  lived  so  plainly, 
was  on  visiting  terms  with  most  of  her 
richer  neighbors,  and  carefully  kept  up  her 
social  interests  as  well  as  the  circumstance 
of  having  but  one  horse,  which  was  often 
engaged  agriculturally,  allowed.  As  soon 
as  her  wardrobe  was  in  order,  she  started 
forth  at  Dorothy's  request  to  proclaim  the 
fact  that  her  niece  would  do  dressmaking. 

"  Shall  I  say,  dear,  that  you,  having  a 
knack  that  way,  and  I  'm  sure  you  have,  for 
this  dress  is  lovely,  are  going  to  make  a  lit- 
tle pocket  money  ?  " 


28  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"No!  aunt;  say  I  have  to  earn  my  liv- 
ing, and  will  do  it  by  dressmaking." 

After  this  Dorothy  had  work.  She  found, 
however,  that  the  ladies  who  could  afford  to 
pay  well  had  their  work  done  in  the  city  and 
only  gave  her  old  dresses  to  make  over,  or 
house  dresses,  for  which  they  expected  to  pay 
very  little,  although  the  making  over  of  a 
well-worn,  old  dress  into  something  stylish 
took  far  more  brain  work  and  time  than  the 
new  work  would  have  done.  After  she  spent 
a  whole  week  over  a  dress,  doing  miracles, 
as  she  knew,  with  the  materials,  if  the  result 
was  not  exactly  that  of  a  new  dress,  she 
could  see  that  her  customer  was  not  pleased, 
and  by  such  work  as  this  she  would  have  to 
sit  very  close  to  make  four  or  five  dollars  a 
week.  But  this  was  all  easy  to  the  wonder- 
ful tasks  expected  of  her  by  some  of  the  far- 
mers' wives.  A  limp  and  much  made  over 
black  silk  was  required  to  be  made  into  a 
modern  "  polonay  "  with  the  drapings,  etc., 
and  if  doubt  was  expressed  as  to  the  possi- 
bility, — 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  29 

"  Why  you  don't  say  ?  All  that  whole 
silk  dress  not  make  a  polonay  ?  Well,  then, 
you  '11  have  to  do  the  best  you  can,"  etc.,  etc. 

But  even  these  cases  were  not  so  bad  as 
the  new  dresses,  generally  sleazy  twenty-cent 
representations  of  something  that  would  cost 
a  dollar,  materials  which  frayed  at  every 
touch ;  generally  the  pattern  was  short,  and 
invariably  the  customer  had  in  her  mind's 
eye  the  rich  or  graceful  draperies  of  some 
well-dressed  woman,. whose  gown  she  fondly 
hoped  her  own  would  resemble.  So  when 
these  draperies  did  not  drape,  and  the  folds 
would  not  flow,  Dorothy's  cheeks  had  to 
burn  under  the  disappointment  of  the  too 
often  angry  woman. 

And  so  six  months  passed,  during  which 
her  experience  in  ultra-economical  cooking 
had  grown  apace,  and  her  note-book  had  sev- 
eral additions  which  her  friends  shall  be 
made  acquainted  with  later.  But  her  hope 
of  earning  anything  more  than  bread  by 
dressmaking  was  fading.  She  could  just  pay 
her  own  and  May's  way  at  her  aunt's,  and 


30  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

that  was  all.  She  recognized  the  fact  that, 
although  she  knew  with  good  materials  she 
could  make  a  dress  fairly  well,  better  than 
many  dressmakers,  to  do  any  good  in  it  as  a 
business  she  must  make  a  dress  letter  than 
most,  and  as  well  as  any.  This  she  began 
to  see  she  never  would  do.  She  was  too  old 
to  begin  at  the  very  beginning,  and  sewing 
was  not  her  forte. 

"  I  should  never  do  much  at  it,  and,  like 
everything  else,  unless  you  can  compete 
with  the  best  you  must  not  expect  to  make 
more  than  a  bare  subsistence." 

May  had  during  this  time  painted  dinner 
cards,  exactly  like  those  ordered  in  their  first 
need  by  some  of  their  friends,  and  full  of 
confidence  had  taken  them  to  a  dealer  in 
New  York,  who  had  very  gently  told  her 
that  they  were  not  up  to  his  mark.  She 
learned  also  at  the  same  time  that  the  price 
he  could  pay  even  for  work  that  suited  him 
was  about  one  third  what  was  paid  by  her 
friends.  Then  she  had  met  a  young  lady 
friend  of  Mrs.  Bevan's  who  eked  out  her 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  31 

income  by  doing  art  work  for  the  Woman's 
Exchange  and  advised  May  to  send  work 
there.  Dorothy,  willing  that  May  should 
have  a  chance  if  possible,  bought  a  ticket, 
and  May,  once  more  hopeful,  painted  cards 
and  plaques  and  menus  and  sent  them  in, 
and  then  confidently  awaited  the  result. 
Her  efforts  were  not  above  the  average,  and 
in  six  months  her  returns  had  been  under 
ten  dollars. 

Dorothy  was  discouraged.  She  kept 
bravely  at  her  work,  and  her  aunt  declared 
her  life  was  made  bright  by  her,  yet  she  be- 
gan to  see  she  had  better  leave  May  and 
seek  a  position  as  housekeeper,  but,  as  even 
that  must  first  be  found,  she  spent  some  of 
her  precious  dollars  and  advertised  every 
week  for  two  months  —  and  nothing  came 
or  seemed  likely  to  come  of  it.  Mrs.  Bevan 
had  felt  very  sure,  when  Dorothy  first  spoke 
of  her  plan,  that  among  some  of  her  corre- 
spondents, most  of  them  rich  people,  there 
would  be  one  who  would  jump  at  the  chance 
of  having  her  niece,  and  then  followed  a 


82  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

vigorous  course  of  letter-writing ;  but  as  is 
always  the  case,  one  had  known  of  some- 
thing just  suitable  a  few  months  ago,  an- 
other might  soon  require  assistance,  but  no 
one  at  this  time  seemed  to  need  Dorothy. 

One  day  May  returned  from  the  city, 
where  she  had  been  to  see  after  her  interests 
at  the  Woman's  Exchange,  and  said,  petu- 
lantly flinging  down  a  package  of  her  paint- 
ings, returned  unsold :  — 

"  I  declare  I  don't  believe  anything  sells 
at  that  place  but  cakes !  I  went  to  the  cake 
counter  and  bought  my  lunch,  and  I  heard 
the  attendant  say  they  could  sell  any  amount 
of  really  fine  cake  !  And  that  in  an  artistic 
place,  supposed  to  be  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  lady's  work  !  " 

Dorothy  had  started  up. 

"Cake,  May?" 

"Yes,  and  I  believe  the  business  is 
brisker  there  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  exchange." 

"  Cake  1  Well,  at  least,  I  can  make  cake 
as  well  as  any  one." 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  33 

Dorothy's  eyes  shone  brilliantly,  and  she 
lost  the  languid  air  that  she  had  lately 
worn. 

"  You  don't  mean  to  tell  us,  Dorothy,  that 
you  're  going  to  cook  for  a  living  ?  "  cried 
May.  This  was  even  worse  than  dressmak- 
ing. 

"  Indeed  I  will,  if  I  can  get  it  to  do,  for 
that  at  least  I  can  do  better  than  most,  and 
what  I  can't  do  perfectly  now  I  can  easily 
learn." 


CHAPTER  HI. 

DOROTHY   TRIES   A  NEW   BUSINESS. 

MAY'S  petulant  remark  had  stirred  up 
new  thoughts  in  Dorothy's  mind.  She  sud- 
denly remembered  a  visit  she  had  made 
months  before  to  a  lady  boarding  in  a  hotel 
in  the  city,  and  some  remarks  of  hers  apro- 
pos of  cake. 

The  lady  made  tea  with  a  gas  kettle  in 
her  room,  and,  handing  a  cup  to  her  visitor, 
said,  as  she  passed  it :  — 

"  I  wish  I  could  say  this  cake  is  decent. 
I  sent  for  it  to  the  Woman's  Exchange  in- 
stead of  to  a  first-rate  confectioner's,  think- 
ing my  few  cents  might  help  to  encourage 
more  deserving  women  than  myself,  and  this 
is  my  reward,"  she  said,  handing  a  slice  to 
Dorothy. 

"  Why,  this  is  not  bad  cake,  is  it  ?  "  said 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  35 

Dorothy,  to  whom  it  seemed  fairly  good  if 
it  had  been  fresh. 

"  Not  bad  cake  !  "  cried  her  friend  ;  "  do 
yon  realize,  my  dear,  that  I  paid  a  dollar 
for  this  tiny  cake ;  that  I  asked  for  pound- 
cake, because  that  would  keep  for  months, 
and  I  get  a  sort  of  extra  good  cup-cake  made 
with  baking  powder,  such  as  I  could  buy  at 
any  bakery  for  half  the  money !  I  was  speak- 
ing of  it  to  another  friend,  who  said  she  had 
tried  to  get  really  fine  sponge-cake  and  paid 
the  price  for  it,  but  it  was  simply  like  com- 
mon bakery  sponge-cake  as  dry  as  sawdust  — 
talk  of  women's  work  !  How  can  one  help 
women  except  as  a  matter  of  charity?  If 
ever  I  buy  cake  again  at  the  Exchange  it 
will  be  because  I  want  to  bestow  my  money, 
not  because  it  suits  me  to  buy  there." 

In  better  days  Dorothy  had  often  gone  to 
this  particular  Woman's  Exchange  to  make 
Christmas  presents,  and  she  knew  some  of 
the  ladies  connected  with  it.  She  made  up 
her  mind  to  go  there  now  on  a  different 
errand. 


36  GENTLE   BREADWINNERS. 

The  next  morning  she  started  off.  The 
city  was  some  twenty  miles  from  Plump- 
stead  ;  it  had  been  much  nearer  her  old 
home,  which,  perhaps  I  have  not  said,  was  a 
fashionable  suburban  town  about  an  equal 
distance  from  two  great  cities. 

When  she  arrived  at  the  quiet  house  in 
which  the  Exchange  had  its  quarters,  she 
could  not  help  contrasting  her  present  er- 
rand with  many  former  ones.  May's  artistic 
efforts  had  of  course  left  nothing  of  their 
present  circumstances  in  doubt. 

She  went  straight  to  the  department  de- 
voted to  prepared  food,  and  spoke  to  the 
attendant  in  charge  of  it. 

"  I  want  you  to  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me 
what  articles  you  have  a  ready  sale  for." 

"  We  have  a  ready  sale  for  almost  any- 
thing that  is  very  good." 

"  Do  you  mean  good  of  the  kind  ?  " 

"  Not  that  exactly,  because  ladies  who  pur- 
chase here  like  to  find  something  better  than 
ordinary ;  for  that  reason  we  have  less  de- 
mand for  things  in  the  way  of  cakes  that 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  37 

can  be  bought  cheaply  anywhere ;  less 
demand  for  cookies  and  plain  home-made 
things  than  for  the  finer  cakes.  Indeed,  we 
could  sell  more  really  fine  cake  than  we  get." 

u  I  should  like  to  make  and  send  in  some 
really  fine  cakes  that  I  know  of.  How  can 
I  tell  about  prices  ?  I  know  you  require 
people  to  put  their  own  prices." 

"Yes,  and  we  charge  ten  per  cent,  com- 
mission. If  the  articles  are  just  what  they 
should  be,  we  find  no  difficulty  in  getting 
good  prices  for  them." 

"  Do  you  suppose  you  could  sell  marzi- 
pan ?  " 

"  Oh  dear  me,  yes  ;  we  have  so  many  Ger- 
man ladies  who  come  to  buy,  and  at  holiday 
time  we  could  sell  a  great  deal  of  that.  But 
you  must  remember  that  it  may  be  some 
little  time  before  it  gets  known  that  we  have 
such  a  thing,  and  it  will  be  better  to  send 
very  little  of  anything  at  first ;  then  if  the 
articles  are  found  to  be  really  good,  ladies 
will  order." 

Dorothy  thanked  the  attendant  for  her 
courtesy  and  left. 


38  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

She  was  very  full  of  hope  that  she  had 
at  last  found  something  which  she  could 
really  do,  and  which  was  wanted,  but  she 
was  so  short  of  money  that  she  did  not  dare 
to  buy  more  than  just  enough  ingredients 
for  the  trial  effort. 

She  had  decided  to  send  in  a  loaf  of  a  cake 
that  had  always  been  a  great  success  when 
she  made  it  at  home,  and  was  indeed  in- 
vented by  herself  for  her  father,  who  did 
not  like  fruit-cake,  yet  was  very  fond  of 
almonds  and  citron,  and  which  she  called 
Genoa  cake,  because,  while  differing  from 
the  usual  Genoa  cake,  it  yet  had  the  outward 
appearance  of  one. 

For  this  cake  she  required  :  — 

One  half  pound  of  shelled  almonds. 

One  half  pound  of  citron. 

One  half  pound  of  powdered  sugar. 

One  half  pound  of  butter. 

One  half  pound  of  flour. 

Five  eggs. 

A  small  wine-glass  of  sherry. 

One  (or  two,  if  not  strong)  tablespoonf uls 
of  rose-water. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  39 

For  the  marzipan,  too,  she  needed  almond 
paste ;  she  could  not  afford  to  buy  a  box 
from  the  grocer,  and  to  get  less  she  knew 
she  must  send  or  go  to  the  maker.  It  was 
a  long  car  ride  out  of  her  way,  and  as  she 
had  learnt  from  Aunt  Bevan  shrewdly  to 
count  the  five-cent  expenses,  it  added  at 
least  ten  cents  a  pound  to  her  material. 

"  But  then,  as  the  almonds  there  are  only 
thirty -three  cents  a  pound,  and  forty -five 
cents  elsewhere,  that  will  balance,  and  if 
these  things  sell  I  will  at  once  put  the  money 
they  bring  into  more  materials." 

The  citron  also  must  be  bought  in  town, 
and  a  little  fine  flour. 

Dorothy  had,  when  she  went  to  Mrs. 
Bevan,  twenty  dollars  and  some  jewelry. 
Her  mourning  had  been  unnecessarily  hand- 
some, for  it  was  not  till  after  it  was  ordered 
that  she  knew  the  change  in  their  fortunes. 
Then  the  dressmaker  had  consented  to  dis- 
pose of  all  the  more  costly  garments;  but 
what  she  was  forced  to  take  for  herself  and 
May,  although  the  plainest,  were  the  best 


40  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

of  their  kind.  She  regretted  this  now,  but 
the  time  came  when  she  learnt  the  value  of 
being  well  dressed — the  buffer  that  hand- 
some dress  forms  between  a  woman  and  the 
jostling  world. 

The  twenty  dollars  had  been  diminished 
by  May's  car  fares,  painting  materials,  and 
their  joint  necessities,  and  the  subscription  to 
the  Woman's  Exchange,  until  but  five  dollars 
remained  to  her.  The  little  she  had  made  by 
dressmaking  had  just  sufficed  to  pay  her  own 
and  May's  share  of  Mrs.  Sevan's  expenses, 
and  she  had  seen  with  terror  the  prospect 
of  being  penniless.  She  was  not  sufficiently 
familiar  with  poverty  to  remember  that  sell- 
ing her  jewels  would  give  her  funds.  She 
was  nervously  anxious  now  to  reserve  as 
much  as  possible  of  this  tiny  capital.  Sup- 
pose the  cake  did  not  sell,  it  would  not  be 
wasted,  because  they  could  eat  it,  for,  hap- 
pily, it  would  keep,  but  she  would  have  so 
much  less  money  to  try  other  things.  She 
had  not  offered  sponge-cake,  for  which  she 
also  had  been  famous,  among  their  friends, 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  41 

because  it  would  not  keep  well,  and  would 
require  replenishing  frequently  if  not  sold. 
Butter  and  eggs  she  could  get  in  the  coun- 
try, but  her  aunt's  flour  was  not  adapted  for 
fine  cakes,  so  she  must  take  that  from  town 
with  her.  She  smiled  as  she  thought  that 
four  pounds  of  pastry  flour,  one  of  almonds 
and  one  of  almond  paste,  with  the  citron  and 
sugar,  would  be  rather  unsightly  bundles 
and  accord  ill  with  her  stylish  appearance  ; 
but  Dorothy  had  cast  away  from  her,  so  far 
as  she  could,  the  burden  of  unnecessary 
pride,  and  contentedly  trudged  to  the  depot 
with  her  very  evident  grocery  packages. 
She  had  bought  on  her  way  ten  cents'  worth 
of  rose-water,  and  saw  by  the  very  little  she 
got  how  much  dearer  things  must  be  to  the 
working  poor  than  to  the  rich,  for  it  was 
not  the  sixth  part  of  a  thirty-five  cent  bottle. 

The  next  day  Dorothy  began  to  make  her 
cake.  She  was  rather  nervous,  for,  often  as 
she  had  made  it  in  old  times,  for  a  year  she 
had  not  thought  of  it. 

"  Oh,  aunt,  I  once  made  this  cake  and  it 


42  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

had  a  heavy  streak  in  the  centre.  I  knew 
the  cause,  but  this  oven  is  strange  to  me  ; 
suppose  this  one  should  have  it;  I  can't 
know  it,  for  I  dare  not  cut  it." 

"  What  was  the  cause  of  the  streak  ?  " 
"  It  was  taken  out  of  the  oven  too  soon. 
I  gave  orders  about  the  baking,  saw  the  heat 
of  the  oven,  and  my  wise  cook  thought  I 
must  be  mistaken  in  the  time,  and  that  it 
could  not  need  more  than  an  hour ;  so  she 
heated  up  the  oven,  and  took  it  out  when  it 
was  brown.  I  should  not  have  known  it 
had  I  not  accidentally  seen  the  cake  was  out 
of  the  oven  long  before  its  time." 

Dorothy  first  separated  her  eggs  and  beat 
both  whites  and  yolks,  weighed  and  put  to 
get  dry  and  warm  half  a  pound  of  flour, 
weighed  butter  and  sugar  and  almonds  of 
each  half  a  pound ;  then  she  blanched  the 
almonds  by  pouring  boiling  water  on  them  ; 
then  slipping  them  out  of  the  skins,  which 
are  quite  loose  when  scalded,  she  laid  them 
between  a  cloth  to  dry  while  she  cut  the  cit- 
ron, first  in  thin  strips,  then  in  half  inch 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  43 

r 

pieces.  The  almonds  were  divided  into  two 
equal  parts,  the  first  chopped  as  small  as 
peas  and  put  to  the  citron,  the  other  chopped 
a  little  finer  and  set  aside  ;  she  dredged  a 
little  flour  among  the  citron  and  large 
chopped  almonds,  shook  them  together  and 
put  them  to  warm,  but  not  get  hot.  Dor- 
othy had  everything  she  needed  round  her, 
and  put  away  everything  she  did  not  want 
before  she  got  her  hands  into  the  cake. 
Mrs.  Bevan  had  contributed  a  glass  of  a 
treasured  bottle  of  sherry,  and  then  the 
work  began. 

The  butter  and  sugar  (the  latter  slightly 
warmed)  were  put  into  a  bowl,  and  Dorothy 
with  her  right  hand  at  first  worked,  then 
beat  them  back  and  forth,  until  they  were 
nearly  white  and  like  cream,  then  the  beaten 
yolks  of  the  eggs  were  gradually  added, 
beating  all  the  time ;  the  wine  was  poured 
in  little  by  little,  then  the  rose-water. 

"  That  is  one  thing,  one  can't  depend  on 
measuring  rose  -  water,  I  find.  I  dare  say 
this,  bought  by  the  small  quantity,  is  weak, 


44  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

so,  aunty,  you  must  help  me  to  taste ;  the 
flavor  goes  off  a  little  in  baking,  therefore  it 
must  really  be  perceptible  now." 

A  tablespoonful  was  used  and  pronounced 
not  perceptible,  and  more  added  till  one 
could  just  tell  rose-water  was  there.  After 
five  minutes'  more  beating,  the  flour  was 
gently  sifted  in,  and  the  whites  of  the  eggs. 
It  was  now  a  very  stiff  batter,  which  Dor- 
othy beat  five  minutes  more,  and  then  the 
almonds  and  citron  were  added,  and  just 
stirred  in,  but  not  beaten  at  all.  The  whole 
was  now  poured  into  the  pan,  which  was 
lined  with  buttered  paper,  and  the  remain- 
der of  the  almonds  sprinkled  very  carefully 
and  evenly  over  the  surface  until  the  batter 
was  nearly  hidden  by  them.  The  cover  of  a 
cardboard  box  was  laid  lightly  on  the  cake 
and  it  was  put  into  the  oven. 

"  You  are  sure  you  want  the  oven  as  cool 
as  that,  Dora?"  asked  Mrs.  Bevan,  who 
was  a  deeply  interested  looker-on. 

"  Yes,  aunt ;  it  must  be  what  you  would 
call  a  cool  bread  oven,  about  230°,  if  we 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  45 

had  an  oven  thermometer,  which  if  I  do 
much  cooking  I  shall  get.  I  shall  leave  the 
cover  on  for  one  hour,  then  let  it  brown,  or 
rather  become  a  fine  salmonish  yellow  ;  if  it 
shows  signs  of  getting  darker  before  the 
cake  is  done  the  cover  goes  on  again,  but 
with  a  steady  oven  I  don't  believe  it  will. 
While  it  bakes  I  shall  make  just  a  little 
marzipan.  But  as  I  was  told  that  it  may 
not  sell,  because  they  have  never  had  it  be- 
fore, I  shall  only  use  six  ounces  of  almond 
paste  for  it." 

"  Marzipan  !  what  is  that  ?  " 

"  Oh,  a  favorite  German  goody.  I  know 
of  Germans  in  New  York  who  send  to 
Hamburg  for  it,  and  others  who  get  it  at 
the  German  bakeries,  but  sugar  being 
cheaper  than  almonds  it  is  apt  to  have  too 
large  a  proportion,  and  to  be  like  plaster." 

Dorothy  put  one  pound  of  white  sugar 
into  a  small,  thick  saucepan  with  a  gill  of 
water,  and  let  them  boil  till  the  syrup  hung 
in  a  long  thread  ;  then  she  set  the  saucepan 
to  cool  while  she  weighed  six  ounces  of  al- 
mond paste  and  cut  it  small. 


46  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

When  the  syrup  was  a  little  cool  she  beat 
it,  at  first  with  a  spoon,  then  worked  it  like 
dough  between  her  hands,  then  laid  aside 
one  third ;  the  other  two  thirds  she  put  back 
into  the  saucepan  with  the  almond  paste  and 
a  tablespoonf  ul  of  rose-water,  and  stirred  it 
over  the  fire  till  the  sugar  had  melted  to 
cream  and  the  paste  blended  with  it.  She 
had  to  be  very  careful  to  prevent  burning. 
When  the  mass  got  stiff  like  dough  and  no 
longer  clung  to  the  saucepan,  but  left  it 
white,  the  marzipan  was  done ;  she  put  it 
to  cool.  When  cool  enough  to  handle  she 
sifted  powdered  sugar  on  a  pasty  board  and 
kneaded  it  a  minute  like  bread,  then  formed 
it  into  a  square  cake  two  inches  thick ;  it 
was  now  ready  for  icing. 

The   cake,  after  it  had  been  baking  an 
hour  and  three  quarters,  was  tried  by  insert- 
ing a  broorn  twig,  which  came  forth  dry. 
"It  is  done,  aunty,  and  looks  pretty." 
"  Dear  me,  my  dear,  that  is  a  picture  !  " 
And  so  it  was  in  the  way  of  cake.    It  had 
not  risen  very  much,  but  very  evenly ;  the 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  47 

cake  and  almonds  were  all  the  color  of  a 
finely  baked  macaroon,  not  a  bit  brown,  but 
all  a  fine  deep  yellow. 

"  Oh,  aunt,  what  would  I  give  to  cut  that 
and  know  that  it  is  just  right." 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  it  must  be  right." 

"  I  think  so." 

Nevertheless,  half  a  dozen  times  Dorothy 
looked  and  doubted  and  weighed  it  in  her 
hand  —  sometimes  thinking  it  was  heavy,  at 
others  that  it  was  not. 

"  I  shall  feel  as  if  I  were  in  the  dentist's 
chair  till  I  hear  from  it,"  said  Dorothy. 

"You  need  not  fear,  my  dear;  I  know 
enough  of  pound-cake,  which  that  is,  all  but 
the  fruit,  to  feel  sure  it  is  just  right,"  said 
kind  Mrs.  Bevan,  who  has  great  faith  in  her 
niece. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FRENCH    ICING. GENOA    CAKE. STUMBLING- 
BLOCKS  LN  DOROTHY'S  WAT. 

"  I  'M  waiting  to  see,  Dora,  how  you  are 
going  to  ice  that  marzipan  with  that  stuff ; 
why,  it 's  as  hard  as  cheese,"  said  Mrs.  Be- 
van,  who  had  just  given  another  admiring 
peep  at  the  Genoa  cake ;  "  I  declare,  that 
cake  looks  just  like  a  great  big  macaroon  !  " 

"This  icing  is  what  the  French  call  fon- 
dant or  '  melting  icing,'  and  although  it 
won't  do  for  plum-cake  so  well  as  regular 
frosting,  it  is  far  pleasanter  to  eat,  and  is 
the  fashion  for  all  other  cakes  just  now, 
and  the  beauty  of  it  is  you  can  make  a  good 
deal  of  it,  put  it  in  a  jar  and  cover  it  with 
oiled  paper,  and  it  will  keep  for  months.  I 
found  this  out  for  myself,  accidentally,  for 
I  never  have  seen  the  fact  mentioned  in 
books." 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  49 

As  she  spoke,  Dorothy  took  the  third 
part  of  the  boiled  sugar  she  had  laid  aside, 
aud  put  it  in  a  small  bowl,  which  she  set 
into  a  small  saucepan  of  boiling  water  over 
the  fire,  and  then  stirred  until  the  mass  be- 
came soft  and  creamy.  "  But,  surely,  that 
will  go  back  to  clear  syrup,  Dora." 

"  No,  aunt,  not  if  it  is  kept  stirred  ;  but 
if  it  were  left  alone  that  is  just  what  it 
would  do." 

When  quite  liquid  she  added  a  few  drops 
of  rose-water  to  it,  stirred  it,  and  then 
poured  it  over  the  marzipan,  using  a  warm 
knife  to  spread  it,  till  it  looked  like  enamel. 

"  Now  about  the  price  to  ask  ?  " 

"  I  have  bought  pound-cake  and  had  to 
pay  seventy-five  to  eighty  cents,  but  I  think 
if  I  can  make  a  very  good  thing  a  little 
cheaper  than  the  large  stores,  it  will  be  bet- 
ter, —  they  have  such  enormous  expenses ; 
but  let  me  first  see  what  the  cake  has  cost, 
and  on  account  of  the  almonds  this  cake 
costs  more  to  make  than  pound-cake." 

She  reckoned  her  cost,  allowing  for  the 


50  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

thirteenth  part  of  a  bottle  of  sherry  seven 
cents,  and  three  cents  for  rose-water :  — 

Cents. 
Half  pound  of  almonds  at  thirty-two  cents 

per  pound 16 

Half  pound  of  citron 15 

Half  pound  of  sugar 5 

Half  pound  of  butter 13 

Half  pound  of  flour 2 

Five  eggs 12 

Sherry  and  rose-water 10 

Total 73 

"Of  course,  eggs  and  butter  will  get 
dearer,  so  I  must  charge  now  to  cover  that. 
Now  we  must  weigh  the  cake." 

It  weighed  two  ounces  less  than  three 
pounds. 

Dorothy  considered,  then  said  :  — 

"  If  I  charge  seventy  cents  a  pound  that 
will  give  me  fl.85  for  three  pounds  and 
allow  for  the  commission ;  this  is  doubling 
niy  money  and  allowing  for  extra  cost  in 
winter."  ,. 

"You  forget  expressage,"  said  Mr.  Be- 
van. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  51 

"  No,  I  do  not ;  that  takes  two  articles, 
and  will,  I  hope,  in  future  take  more.  The 
marzipan  cost  me  twenty-two  cents  (eleven 
cents  almond  paste ;  ten  cents  sugar ;  rose- 
water,  one  cent),  and  it  cannot  be  bought 
under  sixty  cents  a  pound.  I  will  charge 
fifty  outside  the  commission." 

"  Well,  you  '11  come  out  with  your  money 
doubled,  I  guess,  even  if  eggs  and  butter 
go  up  ten  cents,  if  your  articles  sell,"  said 
Mr.  Bevan.  "  But  if  you  had  gone  prop- 
erly to  work  and  bought  things  sensibly, 
you  would  have  made  more." 

"  Next  time,  uncle,"  laughed  Dorothy. 

The  next  thing  Dorothy  had  to  think  of 
was  the  packing,  and  this  apparently  simple 
matter  was  one  of  such  difficulty  that  she 
resolved  never  to  be  caught  so  unprepared 
again. 

"  How  in  this  world  that  cake  is  to  be 
packed  without  breaking  off  the  almonds  I 
can 't  see,  Dora  ?  " 

"  I  must  manage,  aunt ;  if  I  had  only 
some  cotton  batting." 


52  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  If  that  '11  help  I  have  a  bundle  in  the 
garret,  new  and  white,  that  I  bought  for  a 
quilt  and  haven't  used." 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  aunt,"  cried  Dora,  in- 
finitely relieved  and  feeling  as  if  the  ques- 
tion was  solved.  She  had  decided  to  pack 
the  cake  in  a  cardboard  box  she  had  brought 
in  her  trunk  which  had  once  covered  some 
choice  books,  but  now  had  been  used  for 
ribbons  and  odds  and  ends  ;  this  Mr.  Be  van 
had  promised  to  nail  up  in  slats  to  prevent 
crushing.  From  the  same  trunk  came  sev- 
eral sheets  of  soft  white  paper,  which  she 
meant  to  wrap  around  the  cake :  they  were 
taken  down  to  the  kitchen  and  laid  in  readi- 
ness; a  window  was  open  and  one  of  the 
thin  sheets  blew  up  against  Dorothy's  face. 

"  Oh,  aunt,  what  shall  I  do  ?  This  paper 
actually  smells  perfumed." 

"Why,  my  dear,  how  can  that  be?" 

"Oh,  I  hardly  know;  everything  in  my 
trunk  has  a  certain  perfumery  odor,  though 
I  have  never  deliberately  perfumed  it." 
Then  struck  by  a  thought,  she  seized  the 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  53 

box.  Yes,  that  too  had  the  same  fragrance, 
very  sweet,  but  not  to  be  used  for  packing 
eatables.  It  was  perfectly  absurd,  but  they 
were  three  miles  from  a  store,  and  for  the 
sake  of  a  few  sheets  of  paper  and  a  box  a 
clay  must  be  lost,  —  and  she  wanted  the  cake 
to  go  at  its  freshest,  —  or  else  some  one  must 
drive  there  and  back,  and  then  go  again  in 
order  to  express  it. 

Mr.  Bevan  was  peculiar,  and  she  did  not 
know  whether  he  would  care  to  take  the 
horse  out  twice,  but  to  her  relief  he  offered 
to  go,  and  now  instead  of  the  cardboard 
box,  a  small  grocer's  box  was  to  be  brought. 

May  was  meanwhile  painting  steadily  in 
the  parlor ;  she  did  not  approve  of  the  cook- 
ing idea,  and  felt  convinced  that  Dora 
would  lower  herself  for  nothing,  for  it  was 
not  likely  that  cake-making  could  pay  as 
well  as  painting.  Why,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
any  common,  uneducated  woman  could  make 
cake  ! 

When  Mr.  Bevan  returned,  the  cake,  with 
the  paper  it  was  baked  in,  was  laid  on  a 


54  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

sheet  of  the  new  white  paper  and  another 
laid  over  the  top,  and  then  a  thick  layer  of 
cotton  batting,  then  another  sheet  of  paper, 
and  then  the  marzipan  was  laid  on  that; 
with  more  cotton  batting  to  preserve  the 
icing,  the  box  carefully  packed  with  old 
newspapers  until  the  cake  would  not  move, 
the  cover  was  nailed  on,  addressed,  and  Mr. 
Be  van  started  for  the  express  office,  so  that 
it  might  go  out  with  the  next  train. 

"  Oh,  aunt,  if  that  only  sells,  and  I  can 
get  orders  for  other  things!  I  know  sev- 
eral things  I  used  to  try  to  make  for  fun 
that  would  be  salable,  I  think." 

"  How  ever  did  you  learn  that  marzipan 
and  icing  ?  " 

"  The  icing  I  got  from  Gouffe's  book.  I 
used  to  have  orange  and  lemon  peels  can- 
died at  home,  and  I  saw  in  Gouffe'  that 
boiled  sugar  allowed  to  cool,  then  beaten, 
made  what  he  calls  tablettes  fondant.  Once 
I  had  a  full  cup  of  the  candy  left  from 
peels,  and  thought  I  would  see  if  that  was 
true ;  for  he  says,  '  when  well  beaten  it  can 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  55 

be  rolled  out  like  dough.'  This  I  could 
hardly  believe,  but  so  it  proved.  When  I 
saw  small  expensive  cakes  were  iced  with  a 
waxy  sort  of  icing,  I  put  two  and  two  to- 
gether, and  I  saw  it  was  the  same  thing.  A 
German  governess  showed  me  the  marzipan, 
and  through  that  I  learned  to  make  maca- 
roons, but  the  way  in  which  I  found  out 
how  to  save  beating  almonds  I  have  always 
been  rather  proud  of.  I  no  sooner  discov- 
ered I  could  make  macaroons  than  a  recol- 
lection came  into  my  mind  of  a  large  green 
cart  I  had  seen  in  the  city  some  time  be- 
fore, and  as  it  drove  along  I  read  in  large 
gold  letters,  '  Almond  Paste ; '  that  was 
all,  but  along  the  roof  was  a  board,  with 
'  For  Confectioners'  Use.'  I  got  papa  to 
look  the  matter  up  in  the  directory,  and  he 
found  out  the  maker.  I  sent  for  a  box  and 
it  proved  excellent,  not  only  for  macaroons, 
but  marzipan  and  many  other  things.  That 
is  several  years  ago ;  now  it  is  sold  in  many 
stores." 

"You  talk  of  putting  two  and  two  to- 


56  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

gether.  When  you  sent  me  a  box  of  orange 
and  lemon  peel,  although  I  could  n't  see 
how  you  had  done  them,  I  knew  that  one 
could  just  as  well  do  fruit  that  way  as  not." 

"  Why,  of  course !  what  a  good  idea, 
aunty,  and  surely  candied  fruit  would  be 
salable!  What  a  pity  the  season  is  over; 
I  would  practice." 

"  Well,  as  far  as  that  goes  you  can  prac- 
tice on  pears.  We  've  a  tree  of  preserving 
pears  just  ready  to  gather,  and  I  'm  going 
to  do  some  up  this  week." 

"  The  very  thing !  and  I  've  other  practi- 
cing in  my  head  which  will  prevent  any  wor- 
rying till  I  hear  from  the  Exchange.  I  am 
almost  sorry  I  was  so  prudent  and  did  not 
take  your  advice." 

It  had  been  discussed  whether  Dorothy 
had  not  better  spend  the  railway  fare  and 
take  her  parcel  to  the  Exchange,  but  there 
was  very  little  money  in  her  purse,  and  if 
this  should  not  sell  it  would  be  so  much 
added  loss.  Mr.  Bevan  had  pooh-poohed 
and  told  Dorothy  she  was  not  fit  for  busi- 
ness if  she  would  risk  nothing. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  57 

"  You  might  just  as  well,  Dorothy,  begin 
comfortably,  and  order  in  a  decent  supply 
for  what  you  need,  instead  of  doing  things 
in  this  peddling  way  ;  you  can  pay  when 
things  are  sold;  why,  look  at  the  waste! 
twenty -five  cents  expressage  on  one  cake, 
and  the  extra  price  you  had  to  pay  for  what 
you  bought  to  make  it !  That  is  the  way 
women  do  business." 

"  It 's  a  safe  way,  uncle.  I  know  just 
what  I  lose,  but  if  I  bought  in  quantity  I 
might  not  be  able  to  pay.  At  all  events, 
I  '11  creep  before  I  walk,  and  we  '11  hope  I 
may  be  able  to  run  some  time." 

Next  day  Dorothy  was  peeling  pears 
bright  and  early,  dropping  each  one  into 
water  as  she  did  so  to  prevent  discoloring. 
When  ready  she  took  the  same  water  and 
put  to  one  quart  of  it  a  pint  of  sugar, 
dropped  into  a  small  preserving  kettle  a 
dozen  pears,  which  she  meant  to  experiment 
with,  poured  the  sugar  and  water  over  them 
and  let  them  gently  boil,  skimming  often, 
till  she  could  run  a  straw  through  the  pears  ; 


58  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

then  she  took  them  out  and  put  the  syrup 
where  it  would  boil  very  fast,  and  added  to 
it  another  pint  of  sugar.  When  it  was 
thick,  clear,  and  well  skimmed,  the  pears 
were  put  back  and  left  to  boil  slowly  until 
very  rich  and  clear,  but  she  watched  for  any 
sign  of  breaking.  When  done  they  were 
left  in  the  syrup  till  next  day. 

"  Aunty,  I  am  enthusiastic  ;  now  have  n't 
you  some  nice  firm  peaches  preserved  ?  " 

"  Of  course  I  have." 

"  Then  let  me  have  a  few.  I  am  so  eager 
I  can't  wait  for  the  pears.  I  have  just  been 
reading  up  'French  Dried  Fruits,'  and  it 
says,  take  them  out  of  rich  syrup  and  lay 
them  on  a  sieve." 

"  My  dear,  I  've  been  through  all  that,  and 
I  've  failed  over  and  over.  They  never  will 
dry,  they  seem  to  run  juice  forever ;  at  least, 
I  've  left  them  in  a  cool  oven  for  days." 

"  Then  that 's  just  because  there 's  some- 
thing left  out  of  the  recipes." 

"  I  've  got  some  noted  cook  books,  and  all 
say  the  same,  as  if  it  was  the  easiest  thing 
to  do." 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  59 

Then  ensued  a  comparison  of  cooking 
books.  Dorothy  knew  if  her  aunt  said  she 
had  followed  directions  strictly  that  she 
really  had  done  so,  but  the  directions  were 
the  same  in  all. 

"  Then  I  'in  going  to  try  several  ways." 

She  took  half  a  dozen  halved  peaches, 
beautifully  clear  and  firm ;  two  she  covered 
thickly  with  sugar,  thinking  to  absorb  juice ; 
from  two  she  wiped  the  juice  with  a  wet 
cloth ;  the  other  two  she  passed  quickly 
through  boiling  water,  laid  them  on  a  clean 
cloth  and  gently  dabbed  the  water  away. 
She  put  all  six  on  a  sieve  on  the  back  of 
the  stove  (the  oven^was  too  hot);  at  night 
they  were  put  in  the  oven  with  the  door 
open. 

The  next  morning  Dorothy  uttered  a  little 
cry  of  pleasure.  Two  pieces  of  peach  were 
as  wet  as  ever  and  much  smaller  ;  two  others 
had  a  circle  of  candy  around  them  ;  the 
other  two  that  had  been  washed  and  dried 
were  nearly  dry  on  the  upper  side,  adhering 
very  slightly  to  the  finger  when  touched. 


60  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  Eureka  !    Aunty,  I  've  solved  the  prob- 
lem, I  think."     She   turned   the   pieces   of 
half-dried  peach  and  took  the  pears  out  of 
the  syrup,  clipped  each  one  by  the  stem  into 
boiling  water,  dried  it ;  then  it  occurred  to 
her  that  if  she  laid  a  napkin  over  the  sieve 
it  would  help  still  better  to  absorb  mois- 
ture.    She   covered  the  napkin  with   pow- 
dered sugar,  and  stood  the  pears,  stem  up 
and  not  touching  each  other,  on  it.     During 
that  day  and  the  next  the  oven  was  given 
up  to  the  experiment,  the  door  kept  open, 
and  the  fruit  turned  frequently.     The  sec- 
ond day  Dorothy  made  a  syrup  of  a  pint 
of  sugar  and  one  gill  of  water,  boiled  it  to 
a  thread,  stirred  the  syrup  while  hot  till  it 
looked  a  little  milky,  and  then  dipped  each 
pear  into  it ;  the  sieve  was  thickly  powdered 
with  sugar,   and  the  pears,    after  she  had 
drained   as   much  candy  as    possible  from 
them,  were  laid  on  it,  and  it  was  again  put 
in  the  cool  oven  and  the  pears  often  turned. 
This   was    how  Dorothy   learned   to  candy 
fruit.     It  was  so  expensive  to  buy,  and  she 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  61 

felt  so  sure  she  could  find  a  ready  sale  for  it 
at  the  Exchange,  that  she  was  delighted. 

This  day,  too,  brought  her  a  letter  from 
the  Woman's  Exchange. 

"  Ah,  aunty,  I  am  afraid  to  open  it,"  said 
Dorothy,  as  she  saw  where  it  came  from. 

"Never  mind,  dear;  if  it's  bad  news 
you  've  only  to  try  again,"  said  Mrs.  Bevau. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MACAROONS.  —  VENETIAN   CAKES.  —  CUCUMBER 

RAGOUT.  —  AMERICAN  WALNUT   CATSUP. 

CANNED   APPLE    SAUCE. 

BUT  Dorothy's  fears  were  groundless ; 
the  note  ran  thus :  — 

"DEAR  MADAM,  —  The  Genoa  cake  is 
sold.  We  have  an  order  for  another.  You 
might  send  two.  Do  you  make  macaroons  ?  " 

It  may  seem  as  silly  to  some  readers  as 
it  did  to  May,  but  Dorothy  felt  a  glow  of 
triumph  akin  in  a  small  way,  perhaps,  to 
that  which  a  young  author  may  feel  the 
first  time  he  is  accepted  —  (No,  no  other 
rapture  of  success  can  ever  be  akin  to 
that.)  She  glowed  and  laughed,  and 
dreamed  dreams  —  prosy  dreams,  if  you 
like  —  but  Dorothy's  highest  ideal  of  good 
at  this  time  was  independence  for  herself 
and  sister. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  63 

No  such  feeling  of  satisfaction  and  hope 
as  this  had  come  to  her  when  she  received 
four  dollars  for  the  first  dress  she  had  made 
—  but  she  felt  now  that  she  had  a  fairer 
field.  Dressmakers  were  everywhere,  but 
she  could  do  three  or  four  things  in  the  way 
of  cooking  that  few  but  professional  pastry 
cooks  would  be  likely  to  do,  and  she  blessed 
the  girlish  "  hobby  "  that  had  led  her  to  try 
to  excel  in  this  direction. 

"  I  think  now,  aunty,  I  may  risk  the 
money  and  go  to  the  city.  I  shall  have 
more  courage  now.  I  will  write  a  large 
card,  and  if  I  find  they  have  not  made  it 
conspicuous  at  the  Exchange  that  they  have 
marzipan,  I  will  ask  them  to  lay  the  card  on 
it,  and,  to  make  it  more  likely  to  catch  the 
eye,  I  will  put  a  bow  of  scarlet  satin  at 
the  top  corner." 

"  Dorothy,  I  do  believe  you  were  cut  out 
for  a  business  woman,"  said  Mrs.  Bevan. 

"  Don't  say  so ;  I  hope,  if  I  do  business, 
I  shall  do  it  promptly  and  properly  ;  but  the 
two  or  three  '  business  women  '  I  have  met, 


64  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

in  spite,  sometimes,  of  good  manners,  have 
been  pushing,  hard,  and  unscrupulous,  where 
their  own  interests  were  concerned.  It  has 
seemed  to  take  away  all  nobility  of  feel- 
ing. I  pray  money-making  may  never  make 
me  do  a  thing  for  business'  sake  that  I 
should  shrink  from  doing  as  a  private 
lady." 

"  You  are  young  and  generous,  dear,  but 
you  know  what  Goldsmith  says :  '  Oh,  the 
meannesses  poverty  makes  us  guilty  of ! ' 

"Yes,  but  it  is  not  poverty;  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  after  prosperity  sets  in  that  the 
eager  desire  to  make  money  causes  people 
to  forget  all  but  bare  honesty.  Honor  and 
delicacy  become  mere  romance.  I  suppose 
it  is  so  with  prosperous  men  also,  but  one 
notices  it  less." 

"  I  hope,  dear  Dorothy,  you  will  have  an 
opportunity  of  resisting  the  hardening  effect 
of  prosperity." 

Dorothy  laughed  as  she  said,  "  I  think  I 
will  make  a  few  macaroons,  and  take  them 
with  me  this  afternoon.  I  have  almond 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  65 

paste  and  sugar  in  the  house,  and  you  have 
eggs  —  you  will  have  a  market  at  home 
now." 

ALMOND  MACAROONS.  —  Half  a  pound  of 
almond  paste,  whites  of  three  eggs,  three 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  sugar  (sugar  and 
almond  paste  very  carefully  weighed). 

As  Dorothy  separated  the  whites  from  the 
yolks  of  the  eggs,  she  looked  at  the  latter 
a  minute,  then  said  to  her  aunt,  — 

"  Those  yolks  will  dry  up  if  they  are  not 
used  at  once,  and  you  are  so  busy  with  your 
apples  —  I  believe  I  '11  use  them  for  Vene- 
tian cakes  —  and  not  go  to  town  till  to-mor- 
row morning  when  I  can  take  both."  As 
she  spoke  she  put  two  teaspoonfuls  of  water 
to  the  yolks,  and  beat  them  to  prevent  the 
dry  skin  which  so  soon  forms  on  them.  Then 
she  set  them  in  a  cold  place  and  proceeded 
to  make  the  macaroons.  She  first  chopped 
the  almond  paste  in  a  chopping  bowl  (this 
was  only  to  save  the  labor  of  breaking  it 
all  with  a  fork).  Then  the  whites  of  eggs 
and  sugar  were  beaten  as  for  icing,  and 


66  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

the  chopped  almond  paste  added  to  it  and 
mashed  against  the  side  of  the  bowl  with  the 
back  of  a  fork ;  when  all  was  well  mixed, 
and  looked  like  very  soft  biscuit  dough,  she 
put  a  small  piece  of  buttered  paper  in  a 
patty  pan  and  half  a  teaspoonful  of  the 
macaroon  mixture  on  it,  and  set  it  in  the 
oven,  both  to  try  the  heat  and  also  the  consis- 
tence. Sometimes  if  the  whites  of  the  eggs 
are  very  large  or  very  small,  the  mixture 
will  be  too  thin  or  too  stiff ;  in  the  latter  case, 
the  macaroon  will  not  melt  down  in  the  oven 
to  a  good  shape,  but  will  be  "  rocky  "  look- 
ing ;  if  too  thin  it  will  run  too  much,  and  be 
too  flat  and  brittle,  like  "kisses  "  when  cold. 

While  the  macaroon  was  baking,  Dorothy 
cut  some  sheets  of  thin  wrapping  paper  the 
size  of  the  dripping  pans,  greased  the  sheets 
with  lard,  and  laid  one  in  each  of  them ; 
she  blanched  the  rest  of  the  almonds,  and 
chopped  a  tablespoonful  of  them  till  they 
were  about  the  size  of  split  peas. 

The  macaroon  in  the  oven  proved  a  little 
soft ;  there  were  two  ways  of  remedying  it, 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  67 

by  stirring  in  more  sugar,  or  using  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  flour.  Dorothy  chose  the  flour, 
sifting  it  in  gently.  Then  with  a  spoon  she 
dropped  pieces  as  large  as  a  nutmeg,  an 
inch  and  a  half  apart,  in  rows  on  the  greased 
papers,  using  a  fork  to  push  the  paste  from 
the  spoon  ;  on  the  centre  of  each  she  placed, 
with  just  enough  pressure  to  keep  it,  a  pinch 
of  the  chopped  almonds  —  in  melting  down 
they  would  spread  and  arrange  themselves. 
One  pan  was  put  in  the  oven,  which  was 
moderately  hot  (not  cool,  as  many  books 
direct),  while  she  dropped  another  panful. 
Then  she  opened  the  oven  door ;  the  maca- 
roons had  been  ten  minutes  in  the  oven,  had 
risen,  and  she  very  gently  lifted  them  to  the 
upper  shelf,  carefully  shielding  them  from 
draught  or  cold  air,  and  put  the  other  pan- 
ful in.  Now  she  had  to  watch  carefully,  for 
they  must  not  be  much  darker  than  straw- 
color,  and  while  she  watched  she  sliced  four 
ounces  of  the  blanched  almonds  for  the 
Venetian  cakes.  When  these  were  finished 
her  first  panful  of  macaroons  was  done. 


68  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  Why,  Dorothy,"  said  Aunt  Bevan, 
"  these  are  as  handsome  as  any  I  ever  saw 
at  the  best  confectioner's." 

"  Of  course  they  are,"  said  Dorothy  ;  "  I 
should  never  be  satisfied  if  any  one  could 
tell  they  were  not  'boughten.'  I  like  home- 
made things,  but  I  don't  want  them  to  look 
home-made,  nor  even  as  if  they  were  bought 
at  a  cheap  confectioner's." 

She  put  the  pan  on  the  table  out  of  a 
draught  with  greatest  care,  for  while  hot  the 
least  jar  will  cause  macaroons  to  sink.  Nor, 
although  she  was  waiting  for  the  pan,  could 
she  take  them  off  it  till  a  little  cool,  but  she 
had  a  sheet  of  paper  ready  and  dropped 
more  on  that,  while  she  waited,  then  attended 
to  those  in  the  oven,  and  by  that  time  the 
macaroons  could  be  lifted  gently,  paper  and 
all,  from  the  pan,  but  she  made  no  attempt 
even  now  to  remove  them  from  the  paper. 
That  could  only  be  done  when  nearly  or 
quite  cold.  She  threw  a  cloth  over  the  part 
of  the  table  on  which  they  lay,  to  prevent 
them  becoming  brittle,  and  having  put  more 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  G9 

macaroons  in  the  oven,  she  proceeded  to 
make  Venetian  cakes. 

VENETIAN  CAKES. —  A  quarter  of  a  pound 
of  butter,  washed  free  from  salt,  the  same 
weight  of  powdered  sugar  beaten  till  like 
hard  sauce,  the  yolks  of  three  eggs  then 
added  ;  when  well  mixed  the  four  ounces  of 
sliced  almonds  were  stirred  in  and  well- 
beaten  ;  last  of  all  six  ounces  of  very  dry 
flour  was  sifted  in  and  the  mixture  stirred, 
not  beaten.  This  paste  should  be  like  very 
soft  biscuit  dough  ;  if  too  sticky  to  handle, 
dredge  in  more  flour,  and  instead  of  flour, 
sugar  must  be  used  in  making  it  into  little 
balls  the  size  of  a  hickory  nut. 

Every  now  and  then  Dorothy  had  stopped 
her  work  to  attend  to  the  macaroons,  which 
were  now  all  done  and  the  pans  free  for 
Venetian  cakes.  As  Dorothy  made  them 
into  balls  she  set  them  an  inch  and  a  half 
apart.  They  had  to  be  very  carefully  han- 
dled, being  so  soft ;  and  the  adding  of  more 
flour  is  to  be,  if  possible,  avoided.  She  wet 
the  top  of  each,  sifted  sugar  over  them,  and 


70  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

put  half  of  an  almond  in  the  centre  of  each. 
When  they  were  baked  straw-color  they 
were  done.  By  this  time  the  macaroons 
could  be  removed  from  the  paper.  Nearly 
all  came  off  easily,  but  there  were  a  few 
here  and  there  that  had  baked  a  little  too 
slowly  on  the  bottom,  and  stuck.  The  rem- 
edy was  to  moisten  the  paper  slightly  on 
the  wrong  side.  There  were  between  seventy 
and  eighty  macaroons  and  nearly  a  dozen 
of  these  did  not  look  to  Dorothy's  fastidious 
eye  quite  so  handsome  as  they  ought ;  some- 
times one  or  two  on  a  sheet  would  have 
sunk  in  —  and  a  few  were  too  dark  for  per- 
fection, being  almost  brown.  All  these  Dor- 
othy laid  aside  for  home  use,  the  rest  she 
carefully  packed  into  a  little  fruit  basket. 
She  had  weighed  them  and  found  she  had 
one  or  two  over  a  pound,  and  the  Venetian 
cakes  which  she  packed  into  another  basket 
weighed  about  the  same,  after  she  had  re- 
moved those  that  were  misshapen. 

"  Now  I  must  reckon  cost,"  she  said,  tak- 
ing pencil  and  paper.     "  For  macaroons :  — 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  71 

Cents. 

Almond  pasts,  half  pound 1G 

Sugar,  three  quarter  pound 7 

Eggs  (3)       7 

"  The  best  macaroons  are  eighty  cents  a 
pound,  and  I  can  get  seventy-five  cents ; 
that  will  pay  commission  and  more  than 
double  my  money,  and  so  allow  for  eggs 
becoming  dearer." 

"  And  the  yolks  go  into  the  other  cakes." 
"  Yes.     I  must   always  manage  to  make 
something  that  needs  no  white   of  egg  ;  the 
same  as  macaroons.     The  cost  of  the  Vene- 
tian cake  is  : 

Cents. 

One  fourth  pound  butter 7 

One  half  pound  almonds 8 

One  fourth  pound  sugar 2 

Six  ounces  of  flour 2 

Total 19 

"  But  no  one  would  believe  they  were  fine 

cakes  if  I  ask  only  forty  cents  a  pound.     I 

must  consult  the  attendant." 

Mrs.  Bevan  had  a  great  basket  of  apples 

by  her  side,  which  she  was  paring  with  a 

machine  fastened  to  the  table. 


72  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  Tell  me  what  is  for  dinner,  aunt.  I  've 
done  now,  and  will  cook  it  so  that  you  need 
not  leave  off." 

"  Thank  you.  I  was  thinking  we  might 
have  something-  savory.  We  Ve  had  the 
vegetables  dressed  with  butter  and  flour 
several  days,  so  if  you  '11  attend  to  them  we 
might  have  fried  cucumbers  and  onions.  I 
peeled  the  cucumber  and  put  it  to  drain 
before  I  began  these  apples." 

Dorothy  prepared  the  other  vegetables  for 
dinner,  and  then  made  the  dish  which  was 
always  a  favorite  one  in  that  frugal  house- 
hold, which  Mrs.  Bevan  called 

CUCUMBER  RAGOUT.  —  An  equal  quan- 
tity of  cucumber,  sliced  (as  thick  as  a  silver 
dollar)  and  drained,  and  of  onions  and 
tomatoes  also  sliced.  Put  a  tablespoonful 
of  lard  or  nice  drippings  in  a  frying-pan  ; 
lay  in  the  onions.  When  the  fat  is  very  hot, 
flour  the  slices  of  cucumber,  lay  them  in 
also,  and  let  both  onions  and  cucumber 
thoroughly  brown ;  they  will  shrink  con- 
siderably. When  they  are  brown,  not  be- 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  73 

fore,  lay  in  the  sliced  and  peeled  tomatoes, 
a  tablespoonful  of  flour  and  one  of  butter 
blended,  and  half  a  pint  of  water,  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  salt,  and  as  much  pepper  as 
would  go  on  the  end  of  a  knife.  All  to 
stew  together  for  half  an  hour ;  when  done 
a  tablespoonful  of  home-made  walnut  catsup 
was  added.  Dorothy  took  the  precaution  of 
peeling  the  onions  in  a  pan  of  cold  water 
that  her  hands  might  be  neither  stained  nor 
affected  by  the  odor  of  onions. 

Mrs.  Be  van's  walnut  catsup  was  made 
from  the  black  walnuts  that  grew  in  their 
door-yard,  and  was  so  good  a  substitute  for 
the  imported  article,  and  gave  so  pleasant  a 
zest  to  many  of  her  frugal  dishes,  that  I 
transcribe  it  from  Dorothy's  note-book  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  may  like  to  make 
their  own  store  sauce. 

AMERICAN  WALNUT  CATSUP.  —  Take 
100  green  walnuts  while  you  can  run  a  knit- 
ting-needle through  them.  Sprinkle  half 
a  pound  of  salt  over  them,  after  bruising 
them.  Let  them  remain  in  a  wooden  vessel 


74  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

six  days  or  eight,  beating  and  mashing  them 
well  every  day.  When  they  are  soft  and 
pulpy,  press  them  well,  pile  them  up  on  one 
side  the  tub,  and  tilt  it  so  that  the  juice  runs 
to  the  other  side  ;  take  this  out  from  day  to 
day,  always  pounding  the  nuts  afresh  and 
pressing  them  to  the  side  till  the  liquid 
ceases  to  flow ;  simmer  the  liquid  till  no 
more  scum  rises ;  then  to  every  three  quarts 
of  it  add  two  ounces  of  best  ginger,  two 
ounces  of  allspice,  one  of  whole  pepper,  one 
of  cloves,  all  bruised ;  boil  slowly  half  an 
hour;  bottle  when  quite  cold,  dividing  the 
spice  so  that  each  bottle  may  get  its  own 
proportion.  They  must  be  quite  full,  tightly 
corked  and  dipped  into  melted  resin,  or 
bottle  wax ;  lay  them  on  their  sides  in  a 
dry,  cool  place.  It  is  good  in  six  months, 
but  better  in  a  year. 

"  What  ever  are  you  paring  such  numbers 
of  apples  for,  aunt  ?  "  asked  Dorothy,  when 
she  had  set  the  dinner  going. 

"To  dry,  my  dear.  These  fall  pippins 
don't  keep ;  none  of  our  apples  do,  and  the 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  75 

only  way  I  can  have  any  in  winter  is  to  dry 
them.  I  make  a  little  jelly,  but  I  never  suc- 
ceeded in  canning  them  to  keep  well." 

"  But,  aunt,  we  boarded  one  fall  in  a  New 
England  village,  and  the  farmer's  wife  used 
to  make  the  most  delicious  apple  sauce  for 
winter,  without  sugar.  It  cost  nothing  but 
the  trouble  and  the  cans.  I  could  not  believe 
it  would  keep  without  sweetening,  but  she 
gave  me  some  to  take  home.  It  was  just 
like  fresh-made  sauce  in  January  —  better, 
indeed,  than  I  have  made  from  late  winter 
apples." 

Mrs.  Bevan  looked  up  from  her  paring, 
her  eyes  quite  wistful. 

"  If  I  was  sure  of  that  I  would  n't  dry 
one  ?  If  there 's  anything  I  dislike  it 's  dried 
apples.  Yet  they  are  better  for  health's  sake 
than  nothing  in  the  way  of  fruit." 

"  At  least,  aunt,  let 's  risk  it  and  try ;  why 
not  use  these  very  apples  !  I  '11  help  you 
core  and  cut." 

"  Just  as  you  say,  child,  but  I  must  say  I 
can't  see  if  apple  marmalade  keeps  badly 
why  this  will  not." 


76  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  All  I  know  is  that  it  does  n't." 
APPLE  SAUCE  THAT  WILL  KEEP.  —  "  The 
apples  are  cut  into  slices  with  just  as  little 
water  as  will  keep  them  from  burning,  cov- 
ered the  first  half  hour  to  steam  them  soft, 
then  uncovered  and  stewed  two  or  three 
hours  slowly  till  they  are  smooth  and  the 
juice  has  boiled  down  and  the  sauce  rather 
thick;  then  it  is  put  into  hot  cans,  brim- 
ming full,  pushed  down  to  let  out  air ;  the 
tops  must  also  be  hot,  screwed  on  quickly 
and  as  tightly  as  possible,  and  that  is  all !  " 
The  apple  sauce  was  made  that  after- 
noon ;  the  next  morning  Dorothy  went  to 
town.  What  befell  her  there  must  be  left 
for  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NEW    IDEAS    AND    NEW    OPENINGS. 

DOROTHY  left  Plumstead  very  early,  that 
she  might  have  a  long  day  in  town,  and 
reached  the  Exchange  while  the  attendant 
of  the  cake  counter  was  arranging  the  show- 
case, brushing  out  crumbs,  rearranging  the 
cakes,  etc.  She  smiled  on  seeing  Dorothy. 

"  Your  cake  took  every  one's  eye.  I  was 
sorry  for  your  sake  that  it  sold  at  once,  for 
I  am  sure  others  would  have  been  ordered. 
One  of  our  managers  bought  it." 

"  Have  you  heard  how  it  was  liked  ? " 
asked  Dorothy. 

"  Yes,  the  same  lady  wants  another  next 
week,  and  the  one  for  which  I  sent  you  an 
order  was  for  a  friend  of  hers.  I  think  if 
you  made  one  to  be  cut  and  sold  by  the 
pound  it  would  be  a  good  idea,  because  one 
can  then  see  what  kind  of  cake  it  is." 


78  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

Dorothy  was  infinitely  relieved  to  find 
that  the  cake  had  been  approved. 

"  I  will  not  only  make  one  to  cut  for  sale, 
but  if  you  like  you  may  give  any  one  who 
wishes  a  sample." 

"  I  would  advise  you,  then,  to  have  a 
pound  cut  and  distributed  among  the  lady 
managers ;  they  are  excellent  judges  of  real 
good  things,"  she  said  smiling. 

"  Certainly  ;  I  am  only  too  thankful  to 
you  for  your  suggestion,"  said  Dorothy.  "  I 
have  brought  you  a  few  macaroons  and  Ve- 
netian cakes  —  if  you  think  they  will  sell "  — 

"  Oh,  those  will  sell  readily  enough,"  said 
the  attendant,  whom  I  will  call  Miss  Cox. 
"  Macaroons  are  always  in  demand,  and  such 
as  we  have  had  were  not  nearly  so  handsome 
as  these,  yet  they  sold  because  they  were 
home-made.  Those  little  cakes  will  sell,  too, 
if  they  are  as  good  as  they  look.  We  can 
sell  anything  that  is  really  good." 

"  And  what  price  do  you  think  I  ought  to 
ask?" 

"You  can  get  sixty  to  seventy-five  cents 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  79 

for  all  fine  small  cakes,  but  of  course  you 
must  put  your  own  price." 

"Sixty  cents  then,  and  seventy  for  the 
macaroons."  Dorothy  had  looked  through 
the  cake  case  in  search  of  the  marzipan,  but 
saw  nothing  of  it,  and  congratulated  herself 
that  it  was  sold. 

"  Did  the  marzipan  go,  too  ?  I  brought  a 
card,  as  you  said  ladies  might  not  think  to 
ask  for  what  they  would  not  expect  to  find, 
and  meant  to  ask  you  to  put  it  on." 

"  The  marzipan  ?  Oh,  I  remember.  No, 
it  is  not  sold."  She  turned  hastily  to  the 
shelves  behind  glass  doors  at  her  back,  on 
which  were  sundry  stale  cakes  and  pack- 
ages'. She  moved  one  or  two  and  brought 
forth  the  marzipan,  and  Dorothy  shrewdly 
concluded  that  it  had  not  been  in  the  case, 
but  had  been  completely  overlooked.  It  was 
vexatious,  but  Dorothy  knew  she  must  ex- 
pect mischances  and  vexations ;  so,  when  the 
marzipan  was  now  laid  in  front  of  the  case 
by  the  friendly  attendant,  its  icing  not  quite 
so  pearly  as  when  fresh,  she  concealed  all 


80  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

trace  of  annoyance  and  saw  her  card  laid 
on  it.  Then  remembering  Miss  Cox's  hint, 
she  said :  "  I  would  like  to  lay  a  plate  of 
these  macaroons  and  Venetian  cakes  aside, 
to  be  given  to  the  ladies  for  samples ;  and 
now  I  have  brought  a  list  of  things  I  can 
make,  which  I  will  read  over,  if  you  will  tell 
me  what  might  be  salable :  — 

"  English  mock  turtle  soup. 

"  Solid  consomme  for  traveling  invalids. 

"  Mince  meat. 

"  Rich  plum-cake. 

"  Sponge-cake. 

"  English  Twelfth  cake." 

Miss  Cox  asked  to  take  the  list  and  went 
to  consult  some  one  else ;  when  she-  returned 
she  said :  — 

"  The  mince  meat,  as  Thanksgiving  is 
near,  no  doubt  we  could  sell,  and  we  will 
keep  a  note  of  the  other  articles.  We 
have  been  asked  again  and  again  for  con- 
somme, but  as  it  will  spoil  it  would  be  bet- 
ter to  supply  ordsrs  only." 

"  The  solid  consomme"  keeps  much  better 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  81 

than  the  liquid,  and  will  remain  good  in  a 
cool  place  some,  weeks." 

"  You  might  send  some  if  you  chose,  but 
it  is  a  risk ;  the  plum-cake  and  sponge-cake 
will  sell  too  —  but  of  course  you  stand  a 
better  chance  of  losing  nothing  by  sending 
only  things  that  will  keep  well." 

Dorothy  thanked  her  and  left.  As  she 
reached  the  door  a  lady  who  had  been  at 
the  counter  when  first  she  arrived  was  also 
leaving,  smiled  and  said :  — 

"  We  have  both  been  on  the  same  errand. 
I  also  have  taken  some  crullers  and  jumbles 
for  sale." 

"  I  hope  you  succeed,"  said  Dorothy. 

"  Well,  they  sell  sometimes  readily  enough, 
then  again  I  send  two  or  three  lots  and  the 
first  are  not  sold." 

"But,"  said  Dorothy,  "do  they  not  let 
you  know  that  no  more  are  required  for  the 
present." 

"  No,  that  is  the  only  trouble.  This  Ex- 
change has  not  been  long  started,  so  I  sup- 
pose they  don't  manage  very  well ;  but  I  find 


82  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

I  do  well  enough  if  I  drop  in  each  day  to 
find  out  what  are  sold,  bring  away  the  stale 
things,  and  take  fresh." 

"And  do  you  find  it  pays  you,  may  I 
ask." 

"Well,  I  make  very  little,  two  or  three 
dollars  some  weeks,  but  I  am  not  good  at 
fancy  work  and  it  helps ;  it  is  all  I  can  do 
without  leaving  home,  and  then  I  send  to 
two  other  exchanges,"  which  she  named, 
"  and  at  one  of  them  I  do  quite  well ;  you 
see  I  make  very  good  crullers,  but  no  one 
wanted  to  give  more  than  thirty  cents  a 
dozen,  so  I  need  to  make  a  great  many  to 
bring  in  a  few  dollars." 

"  Don't  you  think  articles  that  sell  for  a 
higher  price  would  pay  better  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  make  a  jelly-cake  for  fifty  cents  ; 
in  fact,  I  ring  changes  on  cup-cakes,  crul- 
lers, jelly-cakes,  and  cookies." 

After  a  few  more  pleasant  words  Doro- 
thy parted  from  her,  with  a  conviction  that 
if  money  was  to  be  made  in  cooking  it  must 
be  by  articles  for  which  the  public  were  ac- 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  83 

customed  to  pay  high  prices,  and  not  for 
articles  they  could  buy  on  every  block ;  and 
she  had  gleaned  a  new  idea.  The  two  other 
exchanges  mentioned  were  as  accessible 
from  Plumstead  as  the  one  she  had  left. 
She  was  not  so  sanguine  as  to  expect  that 
her  work  was  going  to  be  a  sudden  success  ; 
the  most  she  hoped  was  that  it  might  be 
enough  to  support  herself  and  May  while 
she  perfected  herself  in  certain  things  that 
were  to  be  her  specialties.  She  was  clear- 
sighted enough  to  see,  and  experienced 
enough  to  remember,  several  instances  of 
certain  articles  becoming  the  fashion  for  a 
year  or  two,  and  which  could  only  be  ob- 
tained from  one  certain  store  or  person. 
As  if  to  emphasize  this  fact,  she  saw  a 
crowd  of  people  blocking  the  door  of  a 
small  store  on  the  thoroughfare  a  few  yards 
ahead  of  her,  and  knew  it  was  one  which 
made  a  specialty  of  old-fashioned  molasses 
candy,  where  she  had  one  day  herself  waited 
patiently  to  get  near  the  counter  to  pur- 
chase. As  she  was  turning  over  in  her 


84  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

mind  what,  aside  from  the  Genoa  cake,  she 
could  make  as  a  specialty,  a  thought  came 
to  her.  When  she  had  been  in  London 
the  year  before  her  father  died,  she  remem- 
bered a  certain  fancy  cake,  or  it  might  be 
called  "garnished  bread,"  which  was  the 
fashion  at  the  five  orclock  teas,  to  many  of 
which  she  had  been,  and  which  were  then 
just  coming  into  vogue  in  this  country. 
Why  should  not  this  novelty,  meeting  a 
want  as  it  was  said  to  do,  being  less  dry 
than  cracker,  less  sweet  than  cake,  more 
dainty  and  more  appetizing  than  bread,  and 
withal  most  ornamental  and  quite  unknown, 
be  successfully  introduced  by  herself  ?  She 
did  not  even  know  a  name  for  them  ;  in 
London  they  had  always  been  called  by  the 
name  of  the  well-known  baker  who  had 
brought  them  into  vogue.  She  smiled  to 
herself  as  she  thought  they  might  be  called 
"  Fortescues  "  or  "  Dorothys."  "  No,  if  I 
succeed  in  making  them  I  will  call  them 
*  Bevans,'  after  dear  aunt." 

She   had  not  much  doubt  she  could  sue- 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  85 

ceed,  for  she  had  decided  in  her  own  mind 
how  they  were  made,  and  had  always  in- 
tended to  try  them.  Now  she  would  lose  no 
time.  She  had  turned  back  as  soon  as  the 
idea  of  the  "Bevans"  came  to  her,  and  re- 
traced her  steps  to  a  celebrated  English 
baker's,  bought  a  Sally  Lunn,  and  then 
took  the  car  down  town,  went  to  the  almond 
paste  maker,  who  also  had  general  confec- 
tioners' supplies,  and  ordered  a  box  of  paste, 
five  pounds  of  shelled  almonds,  and  there 
found  waxed  paper,  which  she  had  seen  at 
confectioners'  stores,  and  had  wished  for  for 
icing.  In  a  short  talk  with  the  young  Ger- 
man she  learned  several  things  destined  to 
be  useful  to  her,  as  will  be  seen  ;  principally 
she  learned  where  to  buy  various  articles 
she  needed.  She  took  with  her  to  Plum- 
stead  four  ounces  of  pistachio  nuts  and  half 
a  pound  of  Angelica,  all  of  which  she  ob- 
tained from  an'other  dealer  in  confection- 
ers' supplies  whose  address  he  gave  her,  at 
much  less  price  than  she  could  have  obtained 
them  up  town.  There  were  other  things  she 


86  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

wanted  to  buy,  but  must  wait  for  more 
money.  She  had  invested  almost  all  she 
had  now  in  supplies. 

During  Dorothy's  visit  to  the  city  Mrs. 
Bevan  had  been  busy  too :  she  had  taken 
the  horse  and  buggy  and  made  several  visits 
to  her  most  prosperous  and  fashionable  ac- 
quaintances. In  her  reticule  had  gone  a  lit- 
tle box  with  three  or  four  of  the  macaroons 
fastidious  Dorothy  had  rejected,  and  which 
Mrs.  Bevan  knew  would  be  far  better,  both 
in  appearance  and  taste,  than  any  obtain- 
able at  the  country  bakeries;  several  had 
said  at  once  they  would  like  some  maca- 
roons ;  it  was  a  very  easy  way  of  obliging 
Mrs.  Bevan,  for  whom  there  was  strong 
liking  among  many  of  her  friends,  and  one, 
Mrs.  Bissell,  ordered  a  pound  of  macaroons 
and  Venetian  cakes,  or  any  others  Dorothy 
might  make,  without  for  a  moment  believ- 
ing that  what  they  said  out  of  kindness  and 
good  will  could  come  to  pass. 

"  It  will  be  so  nice  not  to  have  to  send  to 
the  city  when  we  want  extra  fine  things." 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  87 

Mrs.  Bevan  drove  to  the  station  to  meet 
Dorothy  with  six  orders  in  her  pocket-book, 
but  when  she  saw  Dorothy  appear  she  deter- 
mined to  hear  her  adventures  first.  When 
she  had  told  them  with  a  good  deal  of  eager- 
ness she  said,  "  And  aunt  I  do  think  in  a 
year  from  now  I  may  have  quite  a  business. 
At  first  there  will  be  plenty  of  hard  work, 
for  I  have  a  great  deal  to  learn,  and  of 
course  I  must  expect  failures  and  draw- 
backs, but  nothing  that  is  not  as  perfect  as 
I  can  make  it  shall  leave  my  hands.  I 
make  that  law  to  myself."  Then,  as  a 
merry  thought  struck  her,  she  laughed, 
"You  may  pray  that  my  failures  may  not 
be  too  many,  aunt,  for  we  shall  have  to  eat 
them." 

"  And  you  think  you  will  send  things 
without  orders." 

"  Yes,  I  must  risk  that  much.  Thanks- 
giving will  soon  be  here,  so  I  want  as  soon 
as  possible  to  send  mince  meat,  and  I  think 
I  will  send  some  small  English  mince  pies, 
so  that  those  who  like  may  try  the  mince 


88  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

meat  before  ordering.  I  will  make  some 
solid  consomme  ;  the  mince  meat  keeps  in- 
definitely ;  so  will  rich  cake ;  so  the  only 
risk  is  with  the  consomme,  and  I  will  not 
make  much.  Then  I  have  two  more  cakes 
to  send,  and  I  want  to  send  a  third  to  be 
cut  and  sampled  or  sold  by  the  pound." 
"  When  is  all  this  to  be  done  ?  " 
"At  once,  aunt;  because  the  mince  meat 
ought  to  be  there  now;  and  now,  as  I  have 
come  to  the  end  of  my  money,  I  must  ask 
you  to  order  from  your  grocer  what  I  shall 
need  for  the  first,  and  we  will  do  it  at  once 
if  you  don't  mind." 

"  No,  my  child  ;  anything  I  can  do  you 
know  will  be  done  gladly.  But  I  'in  afraid 
your  hands  will  be  full ;  for  to  tell  the  truth, 
Dorothy,  I  have  told  some  friends  of  your 
lovely  macaroons  (not  for  the  world  would 
the  dear  old  lady  have  revealed  that  she  had 
exhibited  Dorothy's  refuse  macaroons),  and 
they  nearly  all  want  to  try  them.  I  have 
six  orders  —  three  for  pounds  and  three  for 
half  pounds." 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  89 

It  did  seem  to  the  then  inexperienced 
pair  as  if  there  was  a  good  deal  to  get  done 
in  a  few  days,  especially  as  Dorothy  was 
anxious  to  make  experiments  as  well,  and 
she  now  told  her  aunt  about  the  other  ex- 
changes and  her  desire  to  become  a  member 
as  soon  as  what  she  made  enabled  her  to 
pay  the  fee. 

"  That  need  not  delay,  you  can  sell  some 
pieces  of  your  jewelry  that  you  don't  cling 
to,  or  I  can  lend  you  the  money ;  we  are 
never  quite  without,  although  we  are  obliged 
to  live  so  poorly.  There  is  always  enough 
for  an  emergency." 

"  Thank  you  for  the  thought,  aunt,  but  I 
never  thought  of  jewels  ;  what  do  I  care  for 
them  ?  I  '11  sell  them  all." 

"  No,  dear,  you  '11  not  get  quarter  the 
value,  and  will  regret  it  some  day.  Sell 
just  what  will  bring  you  twenty  dollars,  and 
subscribe  at  once  to  the  exchanges." 

And  this  she  did;  that  is,  she  sold  a 
bracelet,  but  found  one  of  the  two  ex- 
changes required  no  introductory  fee. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MINCE   MEAT. MINCE   PIES. —  CANDIED   LEMON. 

ORANGE   PEEL. 

DOROTHY  first  began  the  mince  meat, 
which  was  from  an  old  manuscript  book  of 
her  mother's.  The  recipe  was  as  follows 
(I  give  prices  at  once  to  avoid  repetition)  : 

OLD-FASHIONED   MINCE  MEAT. 

Cents. 

1  pound  of  lean  beef  (allow  four  ounces 
loss  in  boiling)    20 

2  pounds  best  Valencia  raisins 26 

2  pounds  currants ,  20 

4  pounds  tart  apples 15 

2  pounds  beef  kidney  suet 14 

2  pounds  moist  sugar 14 

£  pound  candied  orange  peel 16 

^  pound  candied  lemon  peel 12 

\  pound  citron 15 

One  brimming  pint  of  California  sherry  •  •  25 

Half  a  pint  of  brandy 19 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  91 

One  teaspoonful  each  of  powdered  cloves, 
cinnamon,  nutmeg,  and  one  teaspoonful 
of  powdered  sugar 10 

1  level  teaspoonful  of  sifted  salt. 

$2.06 

When  Dorothy  had  money  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  her  bracelet,  she  asked  Mr.  Bevan 
to  write  to  a  friend  of  his  to  send  her  out 
a  gallon  of  California  sherry  and  one  of 
brandy.  The  wine  cost  two  dollars,  the 
brandy  three  dollars  a  gallon,  which  was 
the  wholesale  price. 

Orange  and  lemon  peel  candied  were 
dear,  and  not  found  at  the  country  store ; 
therefore  Dorothy  decided,  although  the 
fresh  oranges  were  dear  at  that  season,  she 
must  candy  some  for  her  mince  meat.  Lem- 
ons were  cheap,  and  she  candied  more  than 
she  needed  of  them,  for  future  use. 

Dorothy  found  later,  when  she  came  to 
buy  more  largely,  that  she  could  buy  both 
orange  and  lemon  peels  at  wholesale  for 
little  more  than  it  would  cost  to  do  them  if 
she  had  to  buy  the  fruit  for  the  purpose, 


92  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

but  they  were  not  so  fragrant  as  those  she 
did  herself,  nor  so  handsome ;  therefore  after 
she  was  prepared  for  it  she  took  care  to  save 
the  lemon  peels  from  lemonade.  Orange 
peels  were  carefully  laid  aside  before  the 
fruit  was  eaten,  and  lemon  and  orange  peels 
were  thrown  into  a  separate  jar  of  strong  salt 
and  water.  When  the  jar  was  full  she  can- 
died them. 

This  time,  however,  there  was  no  time  to 
let  them  lie  in  salt  and  water,  and  Dorothy 
had  to  give  them  extra  boiling  in  clear  water 
instead. 

I  will  here  tell  how  they  were  done,  as 
where  many  oranges  are  eaten  or  much  lem- 
onade used  they  make  quite  a  difference  in 
one's  Christmas  fruit  bill. 

If  fresh  lemon  peels  are  used  they  require 
longer  boiling  than  those  which  have  lain  in 
the  salt  and  water  ;  the  water  in  both  cases 
needs  changing  while  boiling  till  it  no  longer 
tastes  salt  or  bitter. 

To  CANDY  LEMON  OR  ORANGE  PEELS. 
—  Remove  all  loose  skin  and  pulp,  but  do 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  93 

not  touch  the  white  inner  skin  ;  cut  them  in 
quarters,  and  boil  till  very  tender,  but  not 
until  they  break.  They  take  from  three  to 
four  hours ;  lemon  peels  sometimes  more. 
Remember  if  not  thoroughly  tender  before 
they  go  into  syrup,  they  will  harden  in  it. 
When  you  can  run  a  straw  through  them 
take  them  up,  drain  them  on  a  cloth  or  sieve, 
and  prepare  a  syrup  with  a  pound  of  granu- 
lated sugar  and  a  pint  of  water ;  boil  and 
skim  it,  then  throw  in  the  peels  and  let  them 
slowly  boil  till  clear,  then  boil  fast  till  the 
syrup  is  thick,  take  them  up  and  lay  them 
on  a  dish.  Make  a  syrup  of  a  pound  of  sugar 
and  a  half  a  pint  of  water ;  when  it  has  boiled 
till  a  long  thread  hangs  from  the  end  of  a 
fork,  take  it  from  the  fire,  work  it  while  hot 
with  the  back  of  a  spoon  against  the  sauce- 
pan until  it  begins  to  look  cloudy,  then  each 
piece  of  lemon  peel  must  be  dipped  into  the 
candy  and  laid  on  a  dish  sprinkled  with 
sugar,  and  set  in  a  warm  place  to  dry. 

As  Dorothy  was  going  to  cut  hers  up  and 
use  at  once,  she  simply  took  the  peels  out  of 


94  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

the  rich  syrup,  but  to  keep  them  they  must 
be  candied. 

To  Dorothy,  who  had  plenty  of  work  to  go 
on  with  while  watching  the  peels,  they  were 
no  trouble. 

To  SEED  KAISINS  AND  CLEAN  CURRANTS. 
—  Mrs.  Bevan  volunteered  to  help  seed  rai- 
sins, and  Dorothy  asked  May  to  do  so.  All 
three  sat  down;  a  long,  damp  cloth  was 
spread  on  the  table  before  them,  and  a  bowl 
of  warm  water  placed  near  in  which  to  dip 
sticky  fingers  occasionally.  Dorothy  and 
May  split  the  raisins  with  a  knife  and  re- 
moved the  seeds.  Mrs.  Bevan  preferred  to 
press  the"  raisin  between  her  fingers  and  take 
them  out ;  either  way  is  good,  the  only  thing 
needful  being  that  the  seed  should  be  effec- 
tually removed.  Sometimes,  even  after  the 
seed  is  out  of  the  raisins,  they  cling  to  the 
finger  and  so  go  into  the  bowl  with  the 
seeded  ones,  hence  the  use  of  the  damp  cloth 
to  receive  them.  When  tke  raisins  were 
stoned  the  currants  were  washed,  first  in  a 
quite  warm  water  to  dissolve  the  sugar  which 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  95 

held  them  and  the  dirt  in  masses,  then  the 
colander  containing  them  was  set  in  a  pan 
and  abundance  of  lukewarm  water  poured 
over  them,  the  currants  rubbed  gently  be- 
tween the  hands,  and  the  colander  lifted  up 
and  down  ;  that  water  was  thrown  away  then. 
More  water  was  poured  through  the  fruit 
until  it  ran  with  only  a  reddish  tinge,  with- 
out dirt ;  then  they  were  left  to  drain  and 
put  on  a  coarse  cloth  to  dry,  and  from  that 
into  dripping  pans,  a  thin  layer  in  each,  and 
set  back  of  the  stove,  where  they  would  not 
burn,  and  every  now  and  then  they  were 
shaken  up. 

The  apples  were  then  carefully  pared, 
cored,  and  chopped,  the  suet  freed  from  skin 
and  chopped  very  fine,  Dorothy  was  very 
particular  to  get  the  suet  from  the  kidney, 
which  will  chop  almost  as  fine  as  flour  and 
is  very  free  from  membrane.  She  was  care- 
ful in  chopping  to  do  only  half  a  pound  at 
a  time,  and  to  keep  the  bulk  in  a  cold  place. 
Then  the  raisins  were  chopped,  the  beef  also 
till  it  was  as  fine  as  oatmeal.  Then  the  cur- 


96  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

rants,  now  dry,  were  searched  most  carefully 
for  stones  or  twigs  ;  the  peels  were  shredded, 
and  then  all  the  ingredients  were  mixed  to- 
gether. The  wine  and  brandy  added,  and 
spices.  For  these  last,  although  she  began 
with  the  stated  quantity,  Dorothy  knew  she 
must  go  by  taste,  a  teaspoonful  of  freshly 
ground  fine  spice  being  equal  to  much  more 
of  inferior  quality.  When  the  whole  was 
well  stirred  the  mince  meat  was  ready,  al- 
though it  would  be  much  better  in  a  month 
than  now. 

There  were  fourteen  pounds  of  mince  meat, 
and  Dorothy  knew,  although  there  are  many 
recipes  there  is  no  one  more  rich,  and  that 
her  mince  meat  had  been  considered  so  rich 
that  some  to  whom  she  had  given  it  in  times 
past  had  added  apple.  It  cost  fifteen  cents 
a  pound,  and  the  best  confectioner's  mince 
meat  sold  at  fifty  cents.  She  had  made  a 
sort  of  rule  about  doubling  her  money  on 
what  she  made,  but  in  the  case  of  work 
which  took  more  time  she  thought  she  was 
justified  in  doing  more  than  this;  indeed 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  97 

she  would  not  sell  more  by  selling  too  cheap. 
She  would  fix  the  price  at  forty-five  cents, 
with  the  commission  off  that  would  insure 
her  forty  cents.  The  profit,  she  knew, 
should  her  mince  meat  sell  well,  would  be 
more  when  she  could  buy  at  wholesale,  and 
the  peels  used  this  time  were  several  cents 
dearer  than  they  would  be  at  another. 

She  packed  the  mince  meat  into  glass  self- 
sealing  jars,  three  pounds  in  each,  and  then 
she  made  a  few  English  mince  pies. 

"As  these  are  only  as  samples  of  the 
inside  I  don't  think  I  will  make  real  puff 
paste,  but  use  '  rough  puff,'  rather  less  ex- 
pensive, and  that  takes  less  time." 

"  I  would  make  that  paste  for  you,  Dora, 
only  it  is  never  the  least  like  puff  paste  with 
me  —  but  only  nice  flaky  short  paste." 

"  I  know,  aunt,  I  can't  imagine  why  — 
but  you  '11  see  it  will  rise  almost  as  much  as 
real  puff  if  the  oven  is  nice  and  hot." 

QUICK  OR  ROUGH  PUFF  PASTE. —  Twelve 
ounces  of  butter,  sixteen  of  flour,  the  yolk 
of  one  egg,  and  a  teaspoonful  of  lemon 


98  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

juice,  ice  water.  Dorothy  put  the  flour  into  a 
chopping-bowl,  and,  as  it  had  been  in  rather 
a  warm  closet,  she  had  set  it  and  the  knife 
on  the  ice  to  get  thoroughly  cold  —  the 
butter  also  was  cold  and  firm  —  she  chopped 
butter  and  flour  together  till  the  butter  was 
about  as  large  as  white  beans ;  then  she 
added  half  a  saltspoonful  of  salt  and  made 
a  hole  in  the  centre  and  put  into  it  the  egg 
yolk,  lemon  juice,  and  ice  water  to  make  a 
firm  paste  ;  she  handled  it  very  lightly  and 
did  not  knead  it  at  all  —  so  that  when  the 
contents  of  the  chopping-bowl  were  turned 
on  the  board  there  were  loose  pieces  of  but- 
ter, and  the  paste  was  but  just  holding  to- 
gether;  she  floured  the  rolling-pin,  rolled 
the  paste  till  it  was  half  an  inch  thick,  keep- 
ing it  as  square  as  possible ;  now  she  gath- 
ered all  loose  crumbs,  placed  them  in  the 
centre  of  the  paste,  and  folded  it  in  three, 
very  evenly,  turned  it  with  the  rough  edges 
toward  her  and  rolled  it  out  again,  dredged 
a  little  flour  over  it,  folded  again  in  three 
and  rolled ;  this  she  repeated  once  again. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  99 

The  process  had  been  gone  through  at  an 
open  window,  so  that  it  might  not  be  neces- 
sary to  set  the  paste  011  ice  between  the  roll- 
ing, as  must  have  been  done  had  the  warm 
kitchen  softened  the  butter.  Now,  however, 
it  was  getting  soft  and  sticking  to  the  board  ; 
therefore,  to  the  ice-box  it  went  for  half  an 
hour,  while  Dorothy  prepared  ingredients  for 
three  Genoa  cakes  she  had  to  make. 

When  the  paste  was  firm  she  cut  a  third 
of  it,  leaving  the  rest  on  ice;  rolled  it  an 
eighth  of  an  inch  thick,  turned  a  small,  plain, 
round  patty  pan  on  it,  and  cut  round  it,  al- 
lowing the  knife  to  slope  outward,  so  that 
there  was  a  narrow  margin. 

When  she  had  cut  a  dozen,  she  laid  each 
piece  on  a  patty  pan,  pressed  the  bottom 
gently,  taking  care  not  to  touch  or  smooth 
the  border  in  any  way ;  then  into  the  centre 
of  each  patty,  she  put  a  large  spoonful  of 
mince  meat,  not  spreading  it,  bat  leaving  it 
in  a  high  mound  and  quite  free  from  the 
border;  now  the  rest  of  the  pastry  was 
brought  and  rolled  out  a  shade  thicker,  as 


100  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

many  rounds  cut,  allowing  a  trifle  larger 
margin,  a  narrow  cut  made  with  the  end  of 
a  knife  in  the  centre  of  each,  and  the  border 
slightly  moistened ;  each  cover  was  then  put 
on  the  patty,  plenty  of  room  allowed  for  the 
centre,  and  the  moistened  border  (not  the 
edge)  made  to  adhere  by  gentle  pressure 
with  the  little  finger  round  the  bottom  of  the 
mound  of  mince  meat,  leaving  the  edge  quite 
unpressed  ;  each  patty  was  slightly  brushed 
all  over  with  white  of  egg,  beaten  with  a 
tablespoonful  of  water,  the  edge  again  care- 
fully left  untouched.  The  reason  for  this 
care  was  that  if  pressed,  pastry  is  deadened 
and  cannot  rise ;  if  brushed  with  egg  the 
edges  would  be  glued  together,  and  could 
not  rise  in  leaves  as  it  should  do. 

These  "  pies,"  or  patties,  as  we  would  call 
them,  were  baked  in  a  quick  oven,  and 
watched  that  they  took  no  deeper  tint  than 
that  of  ripe  corn,  and  that  every  one  was  the 
same,  and  when  they  were  taken  out  one  that 
was  not  indeed  burned,  but  had  a  darker 
side,  was  rejected  as  not  perfect  enough  to 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  101 

send ;  although  Dorothy  had  no  intention  of 
getting  orders  for  the  patties,  but  merely  to 
introduce  her  mince  meat,  it  was  not  in  her 
nature  to  send  anything  less  than  perfect. 

While  these  were  baking  she  had  been 
getting  the  Genoa  cake  materials  ready,  and 
by  night  they  also  were  baked. 

"  Now,  aunty,  I  shall  make  a  pound  of 
macaroons  to-morrow  for  this  Exchange,  and 
send  them  all  off.  Then  I  will  go  on  with 
samples  for  the  other  two  exchanges  and  the 
orders  you  got  me.  I  want  to  put  forth 
all  my  strength  on  those  fancy  cakes  Mrs. 
Bissell  told  you  she  wanted  for  her  whist 
club." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GATEAU   DE   RIZ.  BEVANS.  BOUCHEES  DE 

DAMES,  ETC. 

THE  next  day  Dorothy  made  macaroons 
three  times,  resulting  in  over  seven  pounds 
(she  used  a  pound  of  almond  paste,  a  pound 
and  a  half  of  sugar,  and  six  eggs  each  time). 
The  making  was  light  work,  but  the  baking 
of  pan  after  pan  of  them  would  have  been 
tedious,  had  she  not  felt  that  it  was  just  the 
work  that  she  had  to  do,  and  made  up  her 
mind  that  it  was  not  a  bit  more  so  than  to 
sit  sewing  all  day.  She  had  eighteen  yolks 
of  eggs  now  —  she  had  carefully  separated 
the  whites  from  them  without  breaking  the 
yolks,  and  left  six  in  each  bowl,  then  poured 
over  the  latter  a  little  cold  water  to  prevent 
them  thickening  until  she  could  use  them. 

"  There  will  be  the  difficulty,  aunt,  to  find 
a  variety  of  cakes  to  use  up  the  yolks.  I 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  103 

must  look  up  recipes  and  try  experiments 
with  a  dozen  of  these,  but  I  have  to  get  my 
Be  vans  ready ;  the  Salty  Lunn  is  three  days 
old,  but  it  needs  to  be  stale." 

"  Yes,  I  don't  see  how  you  are  to  use  the 
yolks  of  eggs,  dear,  unless  you  make  gold 
cake." 

Dorothy  laughed.  "  That  will  never  do, 
aunty  dear ;  we  have  to  have  something 
much  finer  than  that.  I  do  know  a  French 
gateau  de  riz,  but  I  hardly  think  it  is  por- 
table. I  must  look  up  all  my  cake  recipes 
and  some  that  require  many  yolks,  but  the 
gateau  is  a  delicious  dessert,  and  I  really 
think  we  might  give  ourselves  a  treat  and 
use  half  a  dozen  yolks  for  it.  You  make  it 
and  I  '11  give  you  the  recipe.  Although 
called  cake  it  is  a  great  deal  more  like  a 
cold  padding." 

GATEAU  DE  RIZ.  Boil  a  small  cup  of  rice 
with  plenty  of  milk  till  it  is  like  mush  ;  add 
half  a  saltspoonful  of  salt ;  let  it  cool ;  then 
add  to  it  the  grated  rind  of  a  lemon,  the  yolks 
of  six  eggs  well  beaten,  and  about  three  table- 


104  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

spoonfuls  of  sugar  (less  if  not  liked  very 
sweet),  and  a  teaspoonful  of  vanilla,  more 
if  not  strong ;  be  guided  by  taste  in  this ; 
pour  the  whole  into  a  well-buttered  shallow 
pan,  square  or  oblong  in  shape  if  possible. 
The  rice  should  not  be  more  than  an  inch 
and  a  »half  thick  ;  now  melt  a  large  table- 
spoonful  of  butter  to  oil,  let  it  run  over  the 
whole  surface  of  the  rice,  and  sprinkle 
thickly  with  powdered  sugar,  at  least  a  quar- 
ter of  an  inch  thick.  Set  in  a  good  but  not 
fierce  oven  for  an  hour,  or  until  the  sugared 
surface  is  golden  brown.  When  quite  cold 
cut  into  pieces  three  inches  by  one  and  a 
half ;  they  must  be  kept  in  a  dry  place,  but 
may  be  set  on  ice  before  serving. 

"  If  the  Bevans  should  '  take,'  I  must 
practice  making  Sally  Limn  dough,  because 
it  would  never  do  to  send  to  the  city  every 
time  I  needed  them." 

"  But,  Dorothy  dear,  you  are  not  really 
going  to  call  them  '  Bevans,'  "  said  the  elder 
lady,  almost  blushing  at  the  thought  of  such 
fame. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  105 

"  Yes,  dear  aunty,  unless  you  object ;  if 
they  should  become  the  '  rage,'  as  they  were 
in  London,  you  will  have  greatness  thrust 
upon  you." 

As  she  talked  and  laughed  at  her  aunt's 
half  -  gratified  consternation,  she  cut  the 
Sally  Lunn  downward  in  inch-thick  slices  ; 
then  rejecting  the  top  brown  crust,  she  cut 
these  slices  into  pieces  just  over  an  inch 
broad,  and  put  them  into  the  oven  to  get  a 
pale  golden  color  without  drying  too  much ; 
then  they  were  taken  out  and  allowed  to 
cool  while  the  following  mixture  was  made : 
four  ounces  of  almond  paste  was  chopped 
as  for  macaroons,  the  whites  of  two  eggs 
were  mixed  with  four  ounces  of  powdered 
sugar  ;  the  almond  paste  was  mashed  into 
this  icing.  It  formed  a  paste  that  would 
almost  run,  yet  not  quite.  A  large  tea- 
spoonful  of  this  was  placed  on  each  piece 
of  baked  Sally  Lunn  on  the  broadest  side ; 
when  it  did  not  entirely  cover  each  crust 
about  the  sixth  of  an  inch  thick  and  allow  a 
little  to  run  over  the  sides  (not  plastered 


106  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

over,  however),  she  added  more.  When  a 
baking  sheet  had  as  many  as  it  could  hold 
without  one  cake  touching  the  other,  it  was 
set  in  a  moderate  oven,  and  the  crusts  were 
carefully  watched,  that  none  should  take  a 
darker  shade  than  that  of  a  pale  macaroon. 
The  icing  rose  considerably,  and  some  had 
to  be  turned  about  with  a  fork  so  that  the 
sides  might  not  be  white;  of  course  they 
were  never  turned  upside  down,  and  Dor- 
othy took  great  care-  not  to  touch  the  icing 
while  they  were  hot.  They  looked  very 
handsome  when  they  came  from  the  oven. 

"  That  is  just  as  I  saw  them  in  England ; 
now  I  am  going  to  put  a  Yankee  improve- 
ment on  the  next  batch." 

She  had  prepared  another  panful,  and  on 
these  she  sprinkled  finely  chopped  pistachio 
nuts  (after  blanching  them  like  almonds) 
and  almonds  sparsely  over  them.  When 
they  were  baked  the  same  pale  yellow,  the 
green  nuts  gave  a  very  chic  air  to  them. 

"  They  do  look  beautiful,  indeed,  but  it 
seems  a  strange  fancy  to  put  almond  icing 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  107 

on  crusts  of  bread  —  I  must  say,"  com- 
mented Mrs.  Bevan.  "  I  should  think  cake 
as  a  foundation  would  be  better." 

"  Sample  the  cool  ones,  you  will  see  they 
are  a  pleasant  combination,  sweet  and  not 
too  sweet,  crisp  yet  not  hard,  and  although 
not  rich  they  are  anything  but  dry ;  they 
are,  I  think,  just  the  thing  for  gentlemen 
and  others  who  do  not  care  for  cake.  Now 
if  cake  were  used,  the  result  would  be  quite 
different ;  they  would  be  very  sweet,  and 
fall  to  crumbs.  If  bread  were  used,  it  would 
be  like  cold  toast,  tough  under  the  icing ;  the 
Sally  Lunn  being  very  delicate,  and,  having 
shortening,  grows  crisp  when  baked." 

"Yes,  I  see  they  are  just  about  to  my 
taste,"  said  her  aunt,  eating  one  with  enjoy- 
ment ;  "  I  have  often  thought  I  would  like 
something  between  cake  and  cracker." 

"  Your  friend,  Mrs.  Bissell,  who  wants 
fancy  cakes,  will  like  a  few  of  these  put 
among  them,  perhaps.  I  want  to  send  her 
some  very  lovely  cakes,  because  you  say  she 
is  fashionable,  and  she  may  be  so  well  pleased 
as  to  recommend  them." 


108  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  If  she  does  you  will  have  plenty  of  or- 
ders, for  she  is  a  member  of  a  reading  club 
of  forty  members,  who  have  weekly  enter- 
tainments, and  vie  with  each  other  in  having 
the  most  unique  things,  and  naturally  they 
will  be  only  too  glad  to  get  them  here,  for 
they  always  have  to  send  to  the  city." 

BOUCHEES  DE  DAMES.  —  Dorothy  made 
first  some  cup-cake  batter,  using  half  a  cup 
of  butter,  one  of  sugar,  one  and  a  half  of 
flour,  and  two  eggs,  with  half  a  saltspoonf  ul 
of  salt,  a  small  teaspoonful  of  baking  pow- 
der, sifted  into  the  flour,  and  enough  milk 
(about  three-quarters  of  a  cup)  to  make  a 
thick  batter.  This  was  mixed  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Genoa  cake,  adding  the  flour  last. 
As  soon  as  all  was  mixed,  it  was  dropped  in 
small  drops  the  size  of  half  a  dollar  on  a 
buttered  paper ;  laid  on  a  tin  pan,  they  were 
then  baked  till  they  just  changed  color  no 
longer.  When  they  were  done  each  one  was 
trimmed  to  a  perfect  circle  with  a  very  small 
tin  box  lid.  As  they  were  things  which,  when 
finished,  weighed  heavily  and  very  few  could 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  109 

be  put  in  a  pound  of  mixed  cakes,  she  had 
only  made  three  dozen,  and  baked  the  rest  of 
the  batter  in  a  flat  sheet.  She  divided  the 
drop-cakes  into  separate  dozens,  and  six  she 
spread  with  a  thin  layer  of  red  currant 
jelly,  then  laid  six  cakes  on  these,  making 
half  a  dozen  round  sandwiches.  She  treated 
another  half  dozen  in  the  same  way,  using 
peach  jam,  and  the  third  with  raspberry. 
She  had  now  a  dozen  and  a  half  small 
"  Bouchees  ; "  she  was  careful  to  lay  each 
half  dozen  separate.  Then  she  proceeded 
to  boil  a  pound  of  sugar  to  the  thread  with 
a  gill  of  water  and  half  a  small  teaspoon- 
ful  of  cream  of  tartar,  and  set  it  in  ice 
water  to  cool;  when  she  could  bear  her 
hands  in  it  she  beat  it  till  it  was  like  lard, 
using  her  hands  at  last  just  as  she  had  done 
for  the  marzipan.  She  then  broke  off  one 
half,  set  it  in  a  bowl  in  a  small  saucepan  of 
boiling  water,  and  stirred  it  (flavoring  with 
vanilla)  till  it  was  like  thin  cream.  She 
took  two  forks,  rubbed  them  with  lemon 
juice,  and  dipped  each  little  cake,  with  the 


110  GENTLE   BREADWINNERS. 

peach  jam,  quickly  into  the  icing  with  one 
fork  and  took  it  out  with  the  other,  taking 
care  to  give  a  sharp  rap  on  the  edge  of  the 
bowl  to  disengage  all  superfluous  candy. 
As  each  was  dipped,  it  was  neatly  turned  on 
to  wax  paper  ;  Dorothy  had  done  the  work 
near  the  fire  so  that  the  icing  might  not 
chill  (although  of  course  it  was  standing  in 
boiling  water).  When  six  cakes  were  iced 
she  set  the  candy  to  get  hot  again,  stirring 
it  constantly.  She  had,  meanwhile,  put  an 
ounce  of  unsweetened  French  chocolate  in 
the  oven  with  a  teaspoonful  of  water.  When 
the  candy  was  once  more  hot,  she  added 
the  soft  chocolate,  and  when  quite  blended, 
seeing  it  was  too  thick  to  manage,  for  choc- 
olate always  tends  to  thicken,  she  added  a 
few  drops  more  boiling  water.  The  vanilla 
having  been  the  first  flavor,  she  could  add 
chocolate  to  the  same  candy,  as  the  flavors 
agreed ;  this  saved  time  and  work. 

She  now  iced  with  the  chocolate  as  quickly 
as  possible  the  six  in  which  was  the  red 
currant  jelly.  There  now  remained  six  with 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  Ill 

raspberry  filling.  For  these  she  took  fresh 
icing,  melting  it  by  stirring  in  a  bowl  set  in 
the  boiling  water  as  before.  She  colored 
it,  when  it  was  quite  thin,  like  cream,  with 
a  few  drops  of  cochineal,  to  a  bright  pale 
pink,  and  flavored  it  very  faintly  with  oil 
of  bitter  almonds.  This  powerful  flavoring 
she  only  used  by  tilting  the  bottle  against 
the  end  of  a  knife  and  stirring  it  in  the 
candy.  If  the  oil  is  strong  it  is  difficult  to 
get  the  flavor  faint  enough.  The  cakes 
were  now  dropped  into  the  icing  and  turned 
on  to  waxed  paper  as  were  the  others. 

They  were  now  pink,  chocolate,  and  white 
bouchees  —  half  a  dozen  of  each. 

Mrs.  Bevan  was  looking  on ;  she  said 
nothing,  but  she  looked  volumes  of  admira- 
tion at  her  niece's  work. 

AFRICAINES.  —  "  Wait  a  moment,  aunty. 
I  'm  going  to  turn  those  white  ones  into 
'  Africaines,'  as  they  call  them."  She  had 
just  about  a  half  teaspoonful  of  the  pistachio 
nuts,  very  finely  chopped,  left  from  the 
Bevans.  She  took  a  lump  of  sugar  and 


112      GENTLE  BREAD  WINNERS. 

chopped  it  into  grains  as  large  as  coarse  oat- 
meal ;  it  should  not  be  pounded  or  it  will 
not  sparkle.  She  lightly  moistened  the  tops 
of  the  white  bouche'es  with  white  of  egg 
(enough  remained  in  the  shells  of  the  eggs 
she  had  used  for  this  purpose),  and  sprin- 
kled them  with  a  pinch  of  pistachio  nuts  and 
grains  of  sugar.  It  required  some  care  to 
perform  this  simple  operation ;  the  specks 
of  green  had  to  be  well  scattered,  not  in 
a  bunch  ;  the  sugar,  too,  had  to  be  equally 
distributed.  Dorothy  knew  it  was  just  these 
trifles  that  would  betray  "  a  prentice  hand  " 
if  not  well  done,  and  give  the  "  home-made  " 
look  she  wished  to  avoid. 

If  I  have  described  Dorothy's  bouche'es 
rightly  the.  reader  will  understand  that  they 
no  longer  looked  like  cakes,  but  like  flat- 
tened balls  of  cream  candy,  rather  large  in 
size. 

Dorothy  had  laid  in  a  supply  of  paper 
boxes  from  the  dry  goods  stores  in  town, 
and  she  selected  a  small  flat  one  that  had 
held  ruching,  lined  it  with  waxed  paper, 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  113 

then  laid  on  it  half  a  dozen  of  the  bouchdes, 
covered  them  with  waxed  paper,  a  thin  layer 
of  cotton  batting  on  that,  and  then  put  on 
the  cover.  These  were  for  Mrs.  Bissell ; 
they  weighed  six  ounces ;  the  other  ten 
ounces  of  the  pound  was  made  up  of  mac- 
aroons, the  Venetian  cakes  which  she  had 
made,  and  Bevans ;  but  to  prevent  one  from 
disfiguring  the  other,  the  Venetian  cakes 
were  laid  at  the  bottom  of  the  box,  then 
waxed  paper,  macaroons  next,  then  more 
waxed  paper,  and  on  top  the  Bevans.  I 
may  as  well  say  here  that  in  all  Dorothy's 
after  work  this  care  in  small  things  was 
never  relaxed.  She  knew  that  a  great  or 
well-known  confectioner  might  put  his 
choicest  products  in  a  paper  bag,  and  if 
they  crumbled  or  were  disfigured  no  one 
would  blame  the  article,  only  the  bag  and 
circumstances.  But  her  reputation  had  to 
be  made,  and  she  dared  not  risk  the  beauty 
of  her  wovk. 

"  I  would  like  to  send  these   remaining 
bouche'es  to  the  Exchange  just  as  samples, 


114  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

and  I  should  like  if  I  could  to  withdraw  the 
marzipan  if  not  sold ;  it  would  not  sell  now, 
for  the  icing  by  this  time  must  look  like 
chalk. 

"The  only  trouble  about  the  Exchange 
seems  to  me  to  be  that  there  ought  to  be 
some  way  of  letting  out-of-town  contributors 
know  when  their  work  is  sold  and  when  too 
stale  to  sell.  I  suppose  it  would  entail  too 
much  work  for  them  to  write ;  in  default  of 
that,  one  ought  to  have  some  trusty  person 
living  near  who  would  report." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PORTABLE    CHICKEN    BROTH    AND    CONSOMM& 

SPANISH   MACAROONS. VANILLA   PASTE. 

"  DOROTHY,  I  believe  I  will  go  to  New 
York,  and  will  take  what  you  want  to  send, 
and  also  bring  back  the  marzipan.  I  must 
go  before  long  and  will  do  it  now." 

"That  will  be  excellent,  and  ask  Miss 
Cox  about  everything,  aunt." 

It  was  decided  that  Mrs.  Bevaii  should 
take  with  her  samples  of  candied  peaches 
and  pears,  as  well  as  fancy  cakes.  Dorothy 
had  been  afraid  to  send  them  before,  because 
she  felt  that  well  as  they  looked  they  might 
not  keep  more  than  a  day  or  two,  but  she 
found  now  that  over  a  week  had  passed  they 
were  as  dry  as  ever,  and  she  had  no  fear  in 
sending  them. 

"  I  think  I  will  stay  over  night ;  it  is  so 


116  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

long  since  I  did  so;  and  with  you  here  I  shall 
know  your  uncle  will  not  be  uncomfortable." 

"  Do,  dear  aunt ;  it  will  do  you  so  much 
good,  and  Clara  Vanderpool  will  enjoy  your 
visit  so  much." 

The  next  morning  Mrs.  Bevan,  in  a  black 
satin  gown,  made  over  to  look  very  hand- 
some by  Dorothy,  and  a  charming  gray 
bonnet,  made  by  the  same  skillful  fingers, 
went  off,  carrying  a  neat  little  strapped  Jap- 
anese basket  containing  Dorothy's  wares. 

Dorothy  never  suspected  the  amount  of 
guile  concealed  under  Mrs.  Bevan's  bland 
and  simple  manner.  Dorothy  had  repeatedly 
said  she  would  never  besiege  a  friend ;  if 
they  wanted  to  buy  of  her,  they  might  do  it 
when  they  liked  ;  her  ambition  was  to  make 
herself  so  well  known  through  ordinary  bus- 
iness channels  that  they  would  buy  from  her 
without  solicitation.  The  progress  would  be 
slow,  of  course,  but  at  least  no  one  would 
say  of  her,  as  she  had  heard  many  good- 
natured,  well-to-do  people  say  of  others,  — 
"  Oh,  we  must  buy  some  of  Miss  so  and  so's 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  117 

work  to  help  her,  but  I  would  a  great  deal 
rather  give  her  the  money  and  not  be  obliged 
to  take  the  work."  No,  if  any  one  took  her 
work  it  must  be  because  they  wanted  it,  not 
to  help  her  along. 

Dorothy  thought  women's  work  should  be 
just  as  much  a  matter  of  business  as  a  man's, 
and  look  for  no  more  favor. 

This  self-respect  would  not  have  been  car- 
ried into  obstinate  pride;  if  any  friend 
should  send  for  a  list  of  what  she  could 
make,  she  would  have  gladly  forwarded  it 
and  samples,  but  she  knew,  had  she  offered 
her  wares,  how  difficult  it  would  be  for  that 
friend  to  say  no. 

Mrs.  Bevan  well  knew  her  niece's  pecu- 
liarity, and  although  a  most  timid  and 
shrinking  woman  she  found  courage  for 
Dorothy. 

When  she  found  herself  among  her  friends, 
she  exhibited  the  delicious  looking  wares  she 
was  taking  to  the  Exchange,  for  the  artful 
woman  did  not  go  there  direct.  Mrs.  Bev- 
an's  city  friends  were  nearly  all  well-to-do, 


118  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

some  of  them  prominent  in  society.  To 
these  she  paid  her  first  visits.  She  could 
have  disposed  several  times  over  of  what 
she  had  for  the  Exchange,  but  she  was  wiser, 
and  told  the  would-be  purchasers  if  they 
would  give  their  orders  to  Dorothy  direct,  it 
would  please  her  better,  or  if  they  preferred 
they  could  ask  for  her  articles  at  the  Ex- 
change. This  they  readily  promised,  and 
Mrs.  Bevan  had  no  fear  but  that  the  quality 
of  Dorothy's  work  would  be  recommendation 
enough  after  it  was  once  tried.  She  told 
every  one,  however,  that  Dorothy  wanted  to 
place  her  mince  meat  with  the  fine  grocers, 
and  by  their  customers  asking  for  it  some 
might  be  induced  to  take  it. 

This,  also,  was  enthusiastically  promised, 
and  although  Mrs.  Bevan  knew  busy  society 
people  well  enough  to  feel  sure  that  some 
would  forget,  or  make  one  effort  and  drop 
the  matter,  there  were  two  or  three  steadfast 
souls  eager  on  the  subject  of  helping  women 
to  help  themselves,  who  would  do  more  than 
they  promised  ;  who  would  interest  others 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  119 

like  themselves ;  and  self-interest  and  the 
convenience  of  having  perfectly  prepared 
dainties  would  do  the  rest. 

Mrs.  Bevan  took  home  with  her  the  money 
instead  of  the  marzipan,  which  had  sold, 
an  order  for  consomme*,  and  a  desire  from 
some  one  to  know  if  chicken  broth  could 
also  be  obtained  solid. 

"  Of  course,  aunty ;  I  have  never  made  it, 
but  the  principle  is  the  same,  only  it  would 
be  very  expensive  ;  but  I  will  experiment." 

"  I  have  a  very  fine  recipe  for  chicken 
broth,"  said  Mrs.  Bevan,  "  and  I  '11  kill  a 
chicken  when  you  say  so.  What  have  you 
been  making  ?  You  did  n't  make  that  Sally 
Lunn !  "  pointing  to  a  fine  specimen  on  the 
table. 

"  I  have  been  using  up  yolks  of  eggs.  I 
found  these  recipes.  I  had  terrible  trouble 
with  the  Spanish  macaroons  till  I  found, 
what  of  course  the  book  did  not  say,  —  that 
they  require  the  sharpest  kind  of  heat  and 
very  close  watching ;  at  first  they  ran  in  all 
directions.  The  Sally  Lunn,  too,  I  made, 


120  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

using  only  yolks  of  eggs,  and  I  divided  the 
dougli  in  three  parts,  tried  different  ways  of 
rising  and  consistency,  and  find  that  very 
much  working  of  the  dough  and  rising  three 
times  gives  just  the  right  texture,  but  the 
consistency  and  long  working  are  the  great 
secrets." 

I  give  here  the  recipes  for  the  article  for 
which  Dorothy  used  yolks  of  eggs  —  also 
for  the  solid  consomme,  which  later  on 
brought  regular  orders  from  the  three  ex- 
changes, and  which  Dorothy  gave  into  Mrs. 
Sevan's  hands,  who,  seeing  she  was  not 
taking  what  Dorothy  needed,  thankfully 
made  these  and  a  few  other  things  the 
source  of  a  small  income  :  — 

SPANISH  MACAROONS.  —  Boil  half  a 
pound  of  sugar  to  the  thread ;  add  five 
ounces  of  almond  paste  chopped  very  fine, 
half  a  teaspoonful  of  powdered  cinnamon, 
and  the  grated  rind  of  an  orange ;  let  all 
simmer  very  gently  for  ten  minutes  where 
they  will  not  burn,  stirring  occasionally. 
Then  add  the  yolks  of  six  eggs,  stir  the 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  121 

paste  over  the  hotter  part  of  the  stove  until 
the  whole  is  a  firm  mass.  Let  it  cool,  and 
roll  pieces  as  large  as  a  walnut  between 
the  hands,  slightly  oiled.  Lay  them  on  oiled 
paper,  and  bake  in  a  sharp  oven,  watching 
closely  to  prevent  burning :  three  minutes 
will  cook  them. 

VANILLA  PASTE.  —  Beat  four  ounces  of 
powdered  sugar,  one  tablespoonful  of  vanilla 
powder  (extract  may  be  used,  but  is  not  so 
good),  and  the  yolks  of  four  eggs  together 
for  ten  minutes ;  then  add  four  ounces  of 
flour  and  two  of  butter,  melted ;  mix  vigor- 
ously till  smooth  and  light. 

This  paste  may  have  a  few  chopped  al- 
monds worked  in,  or  chopped  angelica,  and 
be  baked  in  little  balls,  or  it  may  be  rolled 
into  pipes  like  a  lead  pencil.  They  should 
be  laid  on  oiled  paper  so  that  they  will 
not  touch,  and  baked  very  lightly.  They 
may  then  be  coated  with  chocolate  (melted 
in  as  little  water  as  will  dissolve  it,  then 
mixed  with  melted  fondant  icing)  so  as  to 
resemble  vanilla  beans;  or  they  may  be 


122  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

simply  brushed  with  white  of  eggs,  sprinkled 
with  vanilla  sugar,  or  with  grains  of  loaf 
sugar,  and  finely  chopped  pistachio  nuts. 

SALLY  LTJNN.  —  Take  a  pint  of  warm 
flour,  a  scant  half  pint  of  warm  milk,  in 
which  has  been  dissolved  half  a  cake  of 
compressed  yeast,  a  tablespoonful  of  butter, 
and  a  saltspoonful  of  salt  with  a  table- 
spoonful  of  sugar.  Beat  into  these  ingredi- 
ents one  whole  egg  or  two  yolks,  mix  with 
the  flour,  and  beat  very  well;  the  consistency 
should  be  between  batter  and  dough,  just  as 
stiff  as  you  can  stir  with  a  spoon ;  when 
very  light  beat  again  for  ten  minutes  with 
hand  or  spoon,  let  rise  again,  stir  down  well, 
and  put  the  paste  into  tin  hoops  like  very 
large,  deep  muffin  rings.  They  should  be 
two  inches  deep  ;  a  makeshift  may  be  made 
with  stiff  paper  buttered  and  pinned  into  a 
hoop. 

CHICKEN  BROTH  (PORTABLE).  —  A  fowl 
weighing  four  pounds  must  be  carefully 
cleaned,  using  every  edible  part,  the  head 
skinned,  the  feet  scalded,  and  then  the 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  123 

whole  bird  beaten,  bones  and  all,  to  a  mash. 
(If  for  a  convalescent,  a  piece  of  carrot  as 
large  as  an  egg  and  a  stick  of  celery  may  be 
used,  but  the  vegetable  would  not  be  al- 
lowed for  a  very  sick  person.)  Put  the 
fowl  into  a  saucepan  with  three  quarts  of 
water,  simmer  it  very  slowly  for  three  hours, 
when  the  bones  will  probably  fall  from  the 
meat ;  if  not,  let  the  broth  boil  longer,  strain 
and  press  the  meat,  etc.,  between  two  plates 
till  no  more  juice  will  run.  Keturn  the 
broth  to  the  saucepan  and  let  it  boil  fast, 
skimming  often  until  there  is  no  more  than 
a  quart.  Have  ready  a  packet  of  gelatine, 
soaked  in  a  cup  of  water  for  two  hours ;  stir 
this  into  the  broth,  when  you  have  removed 
it  from  the  fire,  till  it  is  entirely  dissolved, 
then  strain  the  whole  through  a  clean  cloth 
that  has  been  thoroughly  scalded.  Season- 
ing not  to  be  added  until  required  for  use. 

CONSOMM£  (PORTABLE).  —  A  knuckle  of 
beef  weighing  five  pounds,  four  pounds  of 
fresh  beef  from  upper  part  of  the  leg,  or 
any  lean  part,  eight  ounces  each  of  carrots, 


124  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

turnips,  and  onions,  four  cloves,  two  bay 
leaves,  and  a  small  head  of  celery.  Cut  the 
meat  up  in  small  pieces,  break  the  bones, 
put  it  on  in  a  large  pot  with  eight  quarts 
of  water,  leave  it  at  least  four  hours  to 
come  to  the  boiling  point,  skim  just  be- 
fore it  reaches  it,  throw  in  a  wine-glass  of 
water,  bring  to  the  boil  again,  and  remove 
scum  before  it  breaks ;  repeat,  then  put  the 
pot  just  where  it  keeps  at  boiling  point  but 
does  not  boil  —  a  bubble  rising  and  break- 
ing slowly  in  the  centre  every  few  seconds  is 
all  the  ebullition  to  be  allowed.  Keep  it 
steadily  at  this  point ;  in  two  hours  add  the 
vegetables,  bring  the  pot  forward  to  regain 
the  boiling  point,  skim  as  before,  and  then 
return  where  it  simmers  only ;  three  hours 
later,  if  the  cooking  has  been  steady,  the 
meat  will  drop  to  pieces,  and  you  can  then 
strain  the  broth  through  a  colander ;  next 
day  remove  all  fat,  pour  free  from  sedi- 
ment, and  boil  the  consomme*  fast  and  un- 
covered till  three  quarts  only  remain.  Have 
two  packets  of  gelatine  soaked  as  for  chicken 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  125 

broth,  drop  it  into  the  boiling  consomm6  as 
it  leaves  the  fire,  and  stir  till  dissolved. 

Both  these  articles  are  to  be  without  sea- 
soning until  required  for  use  5  they  may  be 
diluted  with  boiling  water  to  any  required 
strength,  or,  if  wanted  very  concentrated,  a 
piece  of  the  jelly  can  be  dissolved  by  stand- 
ing it  in  a  cup  in  boiling  water. 

Pour  either  broth  or  consomme*  into  small 
jars,  over  which  tie,  when  perfectly  cold  and 
solid,  a  piece  of  thin  muslin ;  this  will  keep 
in  a  cool,  dry  place  for  some  time.  If  closely 
covered  it  will  mould. 

A  few  days  later  brought  the  result  of 
Mrs.  Bevan's  tactics  and  Dorothy's  samples 
in  the  shape  of  many  orders,  all  small,  but 
of  such  variety,  that,  unexpected  as  they 
were,  Dorothy's  head  was  nearly  turned. 
All  must  be  at  their  destination  for  Thanks- 
giving. The  orders  were  for  Genoa  cakes, 
macaroons,  mince  meat,  fancy  cakes,  can- 
died fruit,  and  marzipan.  They  came  drop- 
ping in  almost  every  mail  for  two  or  three 
days,  so  that  she  could  not  even  systematize 


126  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

her  work;  for  she  had  no  sooner  finished 
one  thing  of  a  sort  than  she  found  she  had 
to  begin  again,  and  most  unexpected  of  all 
was  it  to  find  that  the  mince  pies  she  had 
sent  only  as  samples  to  sell  the  mince  meat, 
brought  orders.  "  You  will  simply  have  to 
say  you  cannot  do  them,"  said  May. 
"  You  '11  not  make  very  much  after  all,  and 
will  almost  kill  yourself." 

"  I  shall  fill  every  order  that  comes  in 
time  if  I  sit  up  half  of  every  night,"  said 
Dorothy  firmly.  And  she  did  sit  up  until 
one  and  two  o'clock  every  morning  and  rose 
at  six,  —  every  hand  helped  her,  even  Mr. 
Bevan,  —  and  when  the  rush  was  over  she 
felt  as  though  she  had  been  through  a  siege, 
and  yet  she  gloried  in  her  work  —  she  knew 
what  she  did  was  seldom  done  by  amateur 
hands,  and  gave  a  shrewd  guess  that  the 
small  orders  now  would  bring  larger  ones 
for  Christinas. 

Nor  was  she  mistaken.  The  following  five 
weeks  were  full  of  hard  work  —  experiments, 
failures,  and  successes.  The  last  week  before 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  127 

Christmas  she  always  looked  back  upon  as 
a  sort  of  phantasmagoria  of  work  and 
worry.  A  servant  had  to  be  sought,  and 
was  found  in  the  person  of  a  certain  Lucy 
Jones  from  a  neighboring  cottage,  and  other 
help  was  offered  and  accepted.  News  of 
Dorothy's  work  had  now  got  about  Plum- 
stead,  and  she  found  several  needy  ladies 
were  anxious  to  do  as  she  was  doing.  They 
all  had  some  excellent  recipes  they  were 
sure  to  succeed  with.  To  all  Dorothy  said 
one  thing :  "  I  think  good  cooking  is  so 
much  needed  that  we  can  all  make  more 
money  by  it  than  any  other  home  work ; 
that  is,  if  we  can  offer  something  that  is 
the  best  of  its  kind,  and  can  always  be  de- 
pended on  for  it  being  so." 

One  of  these  ladies  was  a  widow,  very 
pretty,  very  vivacious,  and  of  whom  Mrs. 
Bevan  said  she  did  the  most  beautiful  things 
in  the  way  of  embroidery.  "  In  fact  I  never 
can  see  why  she  has  not  done  well.  She  is 
so  clever,  and  can  do  everything  so  beauti- 
fully, yet,  poor  thing,  she  has  a  son  and 


128  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

daughter,  and  all  are  dependent  on  her  sis- 
ter and  husband  for  a  home.  She  some- 
times makes  a  little  by  embroidery  or 
crochet,  when  she  can  get  it  to  do.  She 
is  always  just  so  gay,  but  I  know  she 
suffers.  The  life  is  very  sad  for  such 
a  woman."  This  Mrs.  Garland,  Dorothy 
turned  to  with  a  warm  sympathy  when  she 
came. 

"  I  so  much  admire  your  pluck,  but  I  have 
not  come  to  compliment.  I  hear  from  your 
aunt  that  you  are  very  busy.  I  come  to 
ask  if  my  ignorant,  stupid  hands  will  be  of 
service  ?  I  shall  be  grateful  for  the  experi- 
ence if  you  will  allow  me  to  help  you." 

She  held  out  a  pair  of  fine,  shapely  hands 
as  she  spoke.  She  was  so  gay  in  manner  it 
was  difficult  to  think  she  had  a  troubled  life, 
but  Dorothy  gladly  accepted  her  help,  and 
when  they  settled  (while  protesting  earnestly 
she  wanted  no  money)  she  said  she  might 
have  worked  very  hard  at  her  needle  for  less 
than  half  of  it. 


CHAPTER   X. 

EXPERIMENTS   AND   PERPLEXITIES 

AFTER  the  New  Year  Dorothy  had  breath- 
ing time.  She  was  happy  in  the  knowledge 
that  independence  was  before  her.  With  all 
her  work,  after  all  expenses  were  paid  (and 
as  she  had  occupied  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sevan's 
time  she  had  insisted  on  paying  every  ex- 
pense of  the  house),  she  had  $50  left,  but 
she  had  several  articles  and  utensils  that  she 
would  not  need  to  buy  again,  and  she  had 
established  a  business  which  she  knew  would 
grow,  because  it  was  owing  not  to  patronage 
but  to  the  excellence  of  what  she  made,  and 
the  fact  that  those  who  ordered  from  her 
actually  wanted  what  they  asked  for.  She 
had  begun  very  ill  equipped,  and  plainly  saw 
that  she  might,  once  she  could  systematize 
her  work,  earn  four  times  as  much  with  half 


130  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

the  labor,  and  by  degrees  she  could  drop 
part  of  her  work,  and  her  thoughts  flew  to 
pretty  Mrs.  Garland,  and  how  in  the  com- 
ing- fall,  instead  of  refusing  orders,  she  could 
pass  them  all  over  to  her,  and  she  would 
teach  her  all  she  might  not  know. 

During  that  spring  the  orders  for  different 
articles  did  not  amount  to  much  more  than 
enough  to  pay  expenses.  But  she  was  glad 
of  leisure  to  experiment  and  prepare  for 
next  winter's  work.  Among  other  things, 
with  a  view  to  May  being  possibly  interested, 
Dorothy  meant  to  learn  how  to  make  fine 
candy.  She  had  long  felt  sure  in  fondant 
icing  she  held  the  key  to  the  art.  When  in 
the  city  she  had  noticed  in  the  confectioners' 
windows  men  dipping  nuts  into  what  seemed 
to  her  just  the  boiled  sugar  beaten  to  cream. 

Before  she  began  to  make  her  experiments 
she  paid  a  few  weeks'  visit  to  some  city 
friends,  and  while  there  she  searched  the 
great  public  library  for  books  that  might 
help  her.  But  she  found  confectionery 
books  and  information  on  every  branch  of 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  131 

the  subject,  except  the  modern  creams,  she 
wanted.  True,  one  or  two  confections  were 
spoken  of  by  technical  names  which  she  be- 
lieved might  be  what  she  wanted  to  learn 
how  to  make,  but  they  did  not  tell  that. 
They  took  for  granted  that  preliminaries 
were  all  known. 

At  the  end  of  a  fortnight  spent  among 
dusty  cooking  and  confectionery  books  in 
last  century  French  and  Italian,  as  well  as 
modern  ones,  she  carried  home  to  Plumstead 
a  note-book  full  recipes ;  she  had  gleaned 
from  all  her  reading  only  one  or  two  points, 
and  thought  she  had  two  or  three  clews  that 
might  help  her.  But  even  these  clews  con- 
tradicted each  other  in  a  maddening  way. 

I  have  not  space  in  this  short  narrative 
to  follow  Dorothy  through  all  her  candy 
experiments,1  because,  although  had  mince 
meat  and  cakes  proved  less  profitable,  she 
would  have  made  it  a  business,  she  never 
did  so  —  she  learned  it  in  order  to  be  able  to 

1  See  Catherine  Owen's  Lessons  in  Candy  Making,  for 
fuller  instructions  than  can  be  given  here. 


132  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

to  teach  May.  Her  experiments  and  fail- 
ures—  how  many  disheartening  failures  — 
and  success  are  only  touched  upon  to  show 
what  pluck  and  perseverance  could  accom- 
plish. 

She  hoped  if  she  worked  through  the 
drudgery  and  made  it  all  clear  sailing,  as  it 
was  pretty,  dainty  work,  May  might  look  on 
it  with  less  dislike  than  other  branches  of 
cooking.  The  mixing  of  colors  might  touch 
her  art  sense,  and  the  results  would  be  more 
beautiful  to  look  upon  if  artistic  taste  were 
expended  on  them ;  she  also  hoped  a  great 
deal  from  the  fact  that  May  saw  now  that 
she  could  not  make  enough  to  keep  herself 
in  gloves  by  painting. 

When  she  reached  home  she  began  to  ex- 
periment. At  first  all  went  well ;  it  was  a 
fine  day;  she  boiled  the  candy  just  as  she 
would  for  icing,  and  iced  almonds  and  wal- 
nuts successfully  —  or  so  it  seemed ;  the  next 
day  the  walnuts  still  looked  all  right,  but 
the  almonds,  of  which  she  had  left  such  a 
goodly  array,  what  had  happened  to  them  ? 


GENTLE   BREADWINNERS.  133 

The  delicate  pink  coating  had  slid  from 
them,  as  it  were  —  and  each  almond  lay  al- 
most uncovered,  the  cream  candy  forming  a 
sort  of  dish  round  it.  She  touched  it  and 
found  it  far  softer  than  it  had  been  five  min- 
utes after  she  had  coated  them,  and,  as  the 
room  in  which  she  had  laid  them  was  cold, 
she  could  not  hope  they  would  harden. 

She  went  to  look  at  the  walnuts.  They 
were  perfect.  Every  one  left  the  waxed 
paper  clean.  She  sat  down  in  front  of  them 
—  dumfounded.  The  more  so  that  she  had 
no  clew  to  the  trouble,  the  candy  on  the  wal- 
nuts and  the  almonds  was  precisely  alike. 
No,  it  could  not  be  the  candy,  it  must  be  the 
nut  itself.  Perhaps  the  almonds  required 
some  preparation  of  their  surface  before 
candy  would  adhere ;  she  had  blanched 
and  dried  them  in  a  cloth  thoroughly ;  per- 
haps there  was  an  oil  in  them  that  prevented 
the  candy  remaining  on  them.  She  jumped 
up  and  went  to  the  kitchen  and  melted  some 
fondant,  then  dropped  into  it  a  half  dozen 
almonds  not  blanched.  A  few  hours  later 


134  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

she  looked  at  them;  they  were  perfectly 
firm.  Yes,  she  must  conclude  that  blanched 
.almonds  required  preparation,  for  all  the 
almond  creams  that  were  bought  were 
blanched.  It  remained  then  to  find  out 
how  to  conquer  this  ivory  surface  —  and 
for  hours,  while  experimenting  with  other 
things,  she  thought  over  it  till  her  head 
ached.  There  was  not  a  clew  in  any  of  her 
notes.  After  she  was  in  bed  that  night  a 
new  fact  came  to  her  mind.  It  could  not 
be  the  surface  of  the  nuts  after  all,  for  the 
candy  that  had  come  off  them  was  sticky ;  it 
was  as  if  it  had  been  wet.  This  was  a  new 
puzzle,  and  she  lay  awake  hours  trying  to 
solve  it.  I  may  as  well  say  here  (although 
it  was  a  long  time  before  Dorothy  found  it 
out)  that  newly  blanched  almonds,  although 
they  may  be  thoroughly  dried  with  a  cloth, 
still  hold  dampness  enough  to  affect  so  deli- 
cate a  thing  as  sugar.  They  must  be  dried 
with  gentle  heat. 

After  a  week  of  experiment  she  had  made 
several  sorts  of  candy  with  success,  and  be- 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  135 

lieved  she  had  conquered  the  whole  secret 
Thei-e  came  a  day,  however,  when  all  she 
seemed  to  have  learned  came  to  nothing- : 
the  sugar,  boiled  just  as  usual,  would  not 
get  firm,  but  became  softer  and  softer  the 
more  she  beat  it.  She  knew  that  sugar  was 
affected  by  wet  weather,  but  on  the  one  wet 
day  there  had  been,  all  had  gone  well  — 
this  was  a  bright  day !  She,  nevertheless, 
persevered  and  worked,  and  everything  she 
did  was  more  or  less  flabby ;  some  candies 
refused  to  leave  the  paper  at  all,  other 
things  sent  a  tiny  thread  of  clear  syrup 
trickling  from  them  ;  and  then,  not  to  be 
worsted,  she  boiled  sugar  again,  this  time  to 
a  higher  degree,  but  the  result  was  the  same, 
and  at  night  she  put  away  the  remains  of 
both  the  hard-boiled  cream  and  the  soft,  and 
with  an  aching  back  and  head  went  to  bed 
discouraged  and  regretting  the  wasted  day. 
The  next  morning  she  went  to  her  fail- 
ures :  they  were  still  in  a  mushy  condition, 
and  she  concluded  there  must  be  very  much 
yet  to  learn  about  sugar,  and  that  she  had 


136  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

no  way  to  learn  it ;  possibly  it  was  a  trade 
secret,  but  when  she  turned  to  the  two  bowls 
of  cream  to  her  surprise  and  bewilderment 
she  found  one  firm  as  cheese,  the  other  so 
hard  she  could  not  make  an  impression  on  it 
with  her  finger.  That  day  she  made  candy 
again  and  it  was  all  right.  It  was  many 
months  before  she  found  out  that  her  whole 
trouble  was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  had  been 
washday  and  the  house  full  of  steam,  and 
that  sometimes,  but  not  always,  even  a  ket- 
tle of  water  boiling  in  the  same  room  would 
give  much  trouble. 

For  the  present  she  had  to  make  up  her 
mind  that  there  was  something  she  had  not 
found  out,  which  placed  her  entirely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  vagaries  of  sugar,  and  that, 
nevertheless,  by  not  minding  the  days  when 
she  would  fail  because  the  candy  would 
"  grain "  and  the  others  when  it  moist- 
ened, confectionery  was  a  business  that 
would  be  profitable  for  May.  She  did  not 
broach  the  subject,  however,  until  she 
thought  she  had  made  sure  of  being  able 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  137 

to  teach  her,  and  she  met  little  encourage- 
ment from  her  artistic  sister,  who  saw  her 
at  her  experiments. 

"  Well,  Dorothy  !  what  is  all  this  work 
for  ?  If  you  are  determined  to  do  cooking, 
surely  you  know  enough  without  working 
over  this  new  kink  from  morning  till  night. 
You  look  pale  and  worried  with  it ;  why 
don't  you  stick  to  the  things  you  know? 
I  've  always  heard  that  one  should  do  a 
few  things  well."  May  spoke  with  an  air 
of  superior  wisdom  ;  she  still  thought  Dor- 
othy very  peculiar. 

"  I  am  not  sure  what  we  may  need  ;  I  may 
not  have  time,  when  business  begins,  to  ex- 
periment ;  yet  if  there  was  a  sale  for  con- 
fectionery I  should  want  to  know  the  art. 
And  I  think  even  you  would  be  interested 
in  learning  such  dainty  work ;  you  would 
do  it,  on  account  of  your  artistic  taste, 
much  better  than  I.  You  would  invent 
new  tints  and  forms." 

May  was  gratified,  yet  she  said :  — 

"  But,  Dorothy,  don't  you  know  confec- 


138  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

tionery  is  a  regular  trade  ?  How  can  you  or 
I  expect  to  compete  with  the  trade  ;  and  be- 
side, although  it  may  be  all  very  well  to  do 
cooking  for  a  time,  why  waste  your  strength 
in  learning  a  new  thing  you  will  not  need  ? 
One  would  think  we  were  old  maids." 

Dorothy  recognized  her  sister's  thought 
that  marriage  would  take  them  out  of  the 
necessity  of  such  work,  but  she  laughed :  — 

"  Most  likely  I  shall  be  an  old  maid.  I 
shall  be  so  busy  nobody  will  ever  find  me 
long  enough  unoccupied  to  learn  to  like 
me,  and  if  some  one  comes  along  who  is 
persevering  enough  to  '  court '  me  between 
whiles,  what  I  learn  now  I  can  teach  others." 

Nevertheless  May  did  learn  how  to  make 
candy.  She  never  pretended  to  invent  a 
new  combination,  but  contented  herself  with 
following  Dorothy's  directions,  and  her  sis- 
ter's only  hope  was  that  when  orders  really 
came  the  satisfaction  of  working  profitably 
might  awaken  her  interest. 

In  the  fall  she  sent  out  a  list  of  articles 
for  which  she  intended  to  take  orders,  and 
candy  was  included. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  189 

One  list  went  to  every  one  who  had  sent 
orders  last  year,  and  two  or  three  influential 
friends  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Brook- 
lyn, and  Newark  had  so  talked  of  Miss 
Fortescue's  minee  meat  and  preserves  to 
their  grocers,  that  one  or  two  leading  firms 
in  each  place  had  consented  to  receive  on 
consignment,  and,  what  made  Dorothy  very 
happy,  Aunt  Bevan's  canned  apple  sauce  be- 
came that  winter  very  popular.  It  was  so 
different  from  anything  before  offered  for 
sale. 

Dorothy  now  found  herself  on  the  eve  of 
prosperity. 

This  coming  Thanksgiving  week  she  ex- 
pected to  find  herself  very  busy,  but  able  to 
accomplish  thrice  what  she  had  done  the 
year  before  with  less  fatigue ;  ten  hours  a 
day  instead  of  eighteen  she  hoped  would  do 
all.  She  had  what  seemed  to  her  a  large 
quantity  of  raisins  stoned  in  October.  Cur- 
rants were  washed,  and  lemon  and  orange 
peels  had  been  candied  all  through  the  year. 
But  alas  for  one's  calculations.  Although 


140  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

she  had  no  extensive  orders  from  any  one 
person  or  store,  she  had  far  more  small  or- 
ders than  she  had  prepared  for  in  her  mod- 
esty, and  they  were  very  varied  :  one  would 
order  five  pounds  of  mince  meat,  a  pound  of 
macaroons,  two  pounds  of  fruit-cake,  and  a 
pound  of  French  candy,  —  scarcely  an  order 
came  from  a  private  person  without  one  for 
candy;  and  although  a  few  had  been  thought- 
ful enough  to  send  a  couple  of  weeks  ahead 
of  time,  the  orders  came  thick  and  fast  the 
week  before  Thanksgiving,  and  she  found 
every  bit  of  mince  meat  she  had  made  was 
barely  sufficient  to  supply  half.  She  had 
ordered  more  fruit  than  she  expected  to  sell, 
yet  now  she  must  get  as  much  again. 

Once  more  Mr.  Bevan  had  a  quiet  scoff 
on  the  subject  of  women's  incapacity  for 
business,  and  how  absurd  it  had  been  not  to 
take  a  barrel  of  currants,  etc.,  etc. 

The  mail  came  Thursday  morning  that 
warned  her  of  what  she  might  expect,  and 
time  was  so  precious  Mr.  Bevan  had  to  go  to 
the  city  for  more  supplies.  He  was  told  to 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  141 

bring  a  chopping  machine,  and  Mrs.  Bevan 
ransacked  Plumstead  for  suet. 

There  was  over  thirty  pounds  of  candy 
ordered.  The  Exchanges  sent  for  several 
pounds,  for  it  had  come  to  be  understood 
that  whatever  Miss  Fortescue  offered  for 
sale  would  be  good. 

Among  the  variety  of  orders  came  one 
for  a  rich  fruit-cake,  which  Dorothy  made 
from  the  following  recipe,  which  became  af- 
terwards a  very  profitable  branch  of  her 
business. 

ENGLISH  TWELFTH  NIGHT  CAKE.  —  One 
pound  of  butter  washed  first  in  water,  then 
in  rose  -  water ;  one  pound  of  sugar,  one 
pound  of  candied  citron,  orange  and  lemon 
peels  in  equal  proportions  ;  three  pounds  of 
currants,  one  pound  of  sultana  raisins,  three 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  almonds,  blanched 
and  chopped  a  little ;  the  grated  rind  of  two 
oranges,  a  gill  of  sherry,  one  of  brandy, 
yolks  of  twelve  and  whites  of  six  eggs,  one 
pound  of  flour,  very  dry  and  warm  ;  a  small 
teaspoonful  each  of  cinnamon,  grated  nut- 
megs, and  cloves. 


142  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

The  butter  and  sugar  to  be  beaten  with 
the  hand  until  it  will  stand ;  add  yolks  of 
eggs  and  beat  thoroughly ;  then  the  flavor- 
ing, the  whites  and  flour,  the  last  added 
gradually.  The  fruit  must  be  well  cleaned 
and  dried,  the  peels  shredded,  and  then  all 
made  quite  warm  and  floured.  They  must 
be  stirred  into  the  batter  last.  Line  a  round 
pan  or  hoop  with  the  three  thicknesses  of 
buttered  paper  at  bottom,  two  round  the 
sides,  and  pour  the  batter  into  it.  It  will, 
of  course,  be  very  stiff.  This  cake  will  be 
quite  large  if  baked  in  one,  and  should  have 
five  hours'  baking  in  regular  moderate  heat. 
The  oven  should  be  quite  cool  at  first,  and 
never  get  very  hot ;  for  the  first  two  hours  a 
thick  card  cover  may  be  placed  on  it.  The 
great  object  is  to  give  long  baking  without 
burning.  The  crust  should  not  form  for  at 
least  two  hours.  This  is  known  in  England 
as  Twelfth  Cake,  and  is  excellent. 


CHAPTEK  XI. 

CANDY-MAKING. CAPRICES   OF    SUGAR    AND 

SYRUP.  —  FAILURES,   AND    HOW    TO   AVOID 
THEM. 

I  DON'T  know  whether  what  I  have  said 
in  this  little  story  of  Dorothy  and  her  work, 
or  what  I  may  have  to  say,  will  discourage 
my  readers.  My  object  is  to  do  the  reverse. 

"  I  shall  give  the  candy  into  your  hands 
entirely,  for  with  all  this  crop  of  work  I 
could  not  attend  to  it,  and  yet  I  'm  deter- 
mined no  order  shall  go  unfilled  or  be  late, 
even  if  I  sit  up  every  night,"  said  Dorothy. 

Dorothy  had  detected  a  little  mutinous 
wrinkle  about  May's  lips,  and  spoke  rather 
sternly. 

"  Of  course  I  '11  do  anything  to  help, 
though  I  'm  sure  I  shall  make  a  mess  of  it. 
Why  don't  you  select  the  orders  you  can 
comfortably  fill,  and  reject  others  ?  " 


144  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"  I  dare  not.  If  I  had  known  of  this  in- 
flux I  would  have  put  only  large  cakes  and 
mince  meat  on  my  list.  Then,  to  be  candid, 
May,  I  am  anxious  about  your  having  some- 
thing remunerative  in  hand  to  do,  and  I 
thought  the  candy  would  be  just  the  thing  ; 
if  we  refuse  orders  now,  those  who  send  them 
will  not  take  the  trouble  to  order  again." 

Monday  brought  more  orders,  and  Doro- 
thy turned  almost  sick  at  the  mountain  of 
work  before  her.  Happily  May  could  do  the 
candy  with  Mrs.  Garland's  assistance. 

How  that  day  went  and  the  next  three 
or  four  Dorothy  never  knew  ;  only  that  the 
work  steadily  progressed.  Every  hand 
helped,  but  no  brain  worked  except  her  own. 
Mrs.  Garland  boiled  pot  after  pot  of  candy 
and  helped  May  to  work  it.  But  alas !  every 
bowl  seemed  to  have  a  separate  caprice  — 
some  had  a  thick  cake  of  sugar  on  top  and 
grains  all  through.  Then  would  come  a 
doleful  figure  with  a  bowl  and  spoon  to  Dor- 
othy :  "  Oh !  what  is  the  matter  with  this 
candy."  "  Granulated,  add  water  and  boil 


GENTLE   BREADWINNERS.  145 

again."  A  few  minutes  would  elapse,  an- 
other figure  and  another  bowl  with  lovely 
white  creamy  contents,  which  ran,  oh  !  far 
too  nimbly,  from  the.  spoon. 

"  I  've  beaten  and  worked  and  the  stuff 
gets  softer  and  softer :  what  is  the  matter 
with  it?" 

"  Ah,  May !  Don't  you  know  I  told  you 
when  this  happens  it  is  boiled  a  shade  too 
low."  But  then  there  came  troubles  that 
Dorothy  could  not  account  for  nor  cure,  al- 
though she  learned  after  that  they  all  re- 
sulted from  insufficient  experience.  She 
had  not  yet  learned  the  effect  of  steam  on 
the  sugar.  Some  granulated  from  mistaken 
economy  on  Mrs.  Garland's  part,  who  scraped 
round  the  saucepan  after  she  emptied  the 
candy  from  it,  and  dropped  the  scraping 
into  the  clear  syrup  ;  this  formed  a  nucleus 
of  crystals  which  affected  the  whole.  How- 
ever, at  midnight  there  was  candy  enough 
boiled  and  worked  to  make  fifty  pounds. 

There  's  no  denying  that  when  the  morn- 
ing came  —  it  seemed  to  come  just  after  she 


146  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

had  fallen  asleep — she  would  have  given  a 
great  deal  to  be  able  to  sleep  an  hour  longer, 
and  she  fancied  she  was  even  more  tired 
than  when  she  went  to  bed,  but  there  was 
no  help  for  it.  She  must  get  to  work. 

All  went  well  till  after  dinner ;  several 
pounds  of  candy  stood  in  lovely  pink  and 
white  and  lemon  shades  on  the  table,  and 
chocolates,  the  most  difficult  and  exasperat- 
ing of  all  to  the  tyro,  were  about  to  be  made  ; 
the  chocolate  made  the  candy  harden;  by 
Dorothy's  direction  a  teaspoouful  of  sugar 
syrup,  kept  ready  for  such  emergencies,  was 
added  to  the  chocolate  candy.  It  all  went 
to  a  carainelish  syrup,  and  every  white  ball 
dipped  into  it  came  out  pinkish  white,  with 
brownish  flecks.  Suddenly  May  cried  :  — 

"  It 's  no  use,  Dorothy  ;  my  head  aches 
and  I  <jan't  go  on ;  it 's  all  nonsense  killing 
one's  self  like  this ;  no  one  else  does  it !  " 
May  threw  down  her  fork,  and,  pressing  her 
hands  to  her  head,  went  to  her  room  and 
threw  herself  on  the  bed. 

For  a   moment   Dorothy  despaired ;  how 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  147 

could  she  multiply  herself  further?  She 
was  tired  enough  to  sink  into  a  chair  and 
weep,  but  she  did  not  dare.  Mrs.  Garland, 
who  was  making  macaroons,  said  :  — 

"  I  think  if  you  color  the  candies,  and  tell 
me  what  to  do,  I  can  go  on  with  them  while 
I  wait  for  the  oven." 

And  so  it  was  done.  Dorothy  found  the 
trouble  with  the  chocolate  to  be  that  after 
the  syrup  was  added  to  thin  it,  it  was  left 
in  the  boiling  water  on  the  stove  without 
being  stirred,  and  the  sugar  had  gone  back, 
as  it  always  will  if  left  to  itself,  to  clear 
syrup  leaving  the  chocolate  in  solution.  But 
notwithstanding  that,  she  had  overcome  the 
difficulty,  and  so  arranged  that  Mrs.  Gar- 
land could  do  what  she  had  trusted  to  May ; 
her  sister's  sudden  breakdown  had  jarred 
Dorothy's  nerves,  and  to  the  dull  misery  of 
a  cold  was  added  a  lively  headache,  for 
which  there  was  no  remedy.  Mrs.  Be  van 
tied  her  head  up  with  a  wet  cloth  tightly, 
and  every  now  and  again  came  behind  her 
and  changed  it  without  interrupting  her 
work. 


148  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

Do  you  think  this  is  overdrawn,  reader  ? 
I  tell  you  my  difficulty  in  describing  Dor- 
othy's struggle  for  independence  has  been  to 
so  understate  the  whole  that  I  might  escape 
any  charge  of  exaggeration,  and  it  is  all  un- 
derstated. The  orders  she  received  came 
more  quickly  and  in  greater  variety  than  I 
have  dared  to  say.  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  I  have  in  this  limited  space  been  only 
able  to  hint  at,  but  every  woman  living  on 
as  near  nothing  as  possible,  three  miles  from 
a  railroad,  can  judge  them  for  herself. 

Dorothy  had  many  things  against  her  that 
others  may  not  have :  she  was  miles  from  a 
store,  she  worked  for  months  with  the  poorest 
utensils,  and  she  had  not  the  facilities  that 
poor  women  workers  have  now.  Books  have 
since  been  written  with  such  precision  that 
they  can  be  followed  with  ease ;  and  if  books 
fail  there  are  the  cooking  schools  where  in- 
formation on  any  doubtful  point  can  be  ob- 
tained. All  this  has  come  about  within  ten 
years.  When  Dorothy  began  to  work  the 
books  were  unwritten,  the  cooking  schools  in 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  149 

their  infancy,  their  value  unknown  except  to 
the  select  few. 

She  had  only  one  thing  in  her  favor  that 
many  ladies  who  seek  to  make  money  have 
with  her,  but  not  all.  She  had  friends  who 
were  accustomed  to  live  expensively,  and 
anxious  to  get  the  best  of  everything.  But 
the  time  came  when  these  private  orders 
were  far  fewer  than  those  that  came  through 
the  grocers  and  Exchanges.  They  undoubt- 
edly helped  her  greatly,  but  had  she  begun 
without  this  advantage  her  success  would 
have  been  slower,  but  it  would  have  come. 

The  Tuesday  night  before  Thanksgiving 
found  everything  done,  and  ready  for  pack- 
ing, every  tray,  dish,  and  plate  in  the  house 
held  its  array  of  candy  which  was  to  be 
packed  in  a  stack  of  paper  boxes.  Dorothy 
had  worked  off  her  cold,  and  May,  after 
her  head  got  better,  helped  again  ;  but  Dor- 
othy saw  there  was  no  heart  in  the  work. 

This  night,  however,  she  was  bright,  and 
expressed  willingness  to  work  with  Dorothy. 

"  I  shall  not  go  to  bed,  May,  till  every- 


150  GENTLE   BREADWINNERS. 

thing  is  packed  ready  for  uncle  to  take  to 
the  express.  It  will  take  till  dawn." 

It  was  long  past  dawn  when  the  two  girls 
had  put  the  last  package  in  the  last  box  and 
on  every  wooden  packing-box  a  cover  that 
Mr.  Be  van  was  to  nail,  on  before  taking 
away.  Everything  was  expressed,  the  deliv- 
ery of  which  could  be  guaranteed  in  time, 
but  Mr.  Bevan  went  to  the  city  with  a  trunk 
full  of  packages,  which  were  delivered,  when 
he  arrived  there,  by  hand.  This  was  an  item 
of  considerable  expense,  so  much  that  the 
margin  of  profit  left  on  those  articles  was 
small,  but  this  was  a  matter  not  to  be  for  a 
moment  considered  by  Dorothy.  She  re- 
membered that  it  was  not  her  customers' 
fault  that  she  lived  out  of  town. 

"  I  should  think  you  would  make  some 
charge  for  delivery?"  said  Mrs.  Garland. 
"  It  seems  dreadful  to  work  hard  and  lose 
the  profit  in  expenses." 

"  I  look  at  it  in  this  way.  If  the  orders 
were  given  to  any  city  confectioner  or  grocer 
he  would  deliver  them.  Why  should  people 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  151 

be  made  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  buying 
from  me  ?  And  would  they  do  it  a  second 
time  ?  I  think  not.  In  the  future,  which  I 
hope  for,  when  articles  I  make  cannot  be 
obtained  in  the  cities,  I  shall  feel  I  can 
charge  expressage,  but  not  now." 
"  I  think  you  are  over-scrupulous." 
"  It  is  not  scrupulousness,  it  is  prudence, 
and  I  would  gladly  avoid  the  expense  if  I 
could  without  spoiling  my  business  at  the 
outset." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

DOKOTHY    WINS    A    HOME    AND    A    HUSBAND.  — 
MBS.    GAKLAND    AS    A    BUSINESS    WOMAN. 

THE  next  year  Dorothy's  fame  had  spread. 
Her  business  justified  her  in  taking  that 
summer  a  tiny  cottage  in  Plumstead,  where 
she  and  May  lived.  The  latter  was  recon- 
ciled in  a  certain  way  to  cooking,  but  per- 
sistently looked  forward  to  the  time  when 
she  by  a  good  marriage  would  relieve  Dor- 
othy from  the  need  of  such  work.  This  in- 
tention of  hers  soothed  her  conscience  when 
she  left  her  always  the  lion's  share  of  the 
work  to  do. 

Dorothy  made  no  comment  on  May's 
prospects ;  time  enough  to  oppose  her  when 
the  necessity  came.  Dorothy  thought  the 
time  might  not  be  far  off,  for  an  old  friend 
had  returned  from  Europe  bringing  fame 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  153 

as  a  painter  with  him.  May  had  met  him 
on  a  visit  to  one  of  their  New  York  friends  : 
he  had  been  five  years  away.  May  had  then 
been  a  school-girl  and  Dorothy  a  blooming 
girl  of  twenty.  He,  John  Lortain,  asked 
after  Dorothy,  and  was  invited  out  to  Plum- 
stead,  and  now  was  a  frequent  visitor.  Many 
an  hour  did  he  and  May  spend  under  the 
apple-trees,  while  Dorothy  worked  at  the 
window,  near  enough  to  call  out  a  word  now 
and  then.  And  sometimes  May  and  the 
famous  artist  would  hull  strawberries  for 
Dorothy  to  make  into  preserves. 

The  time  had  come  when  Dorothy  had 
been  able  to  select  the  work  that  was  most 
remunerative,  and  now  she  depended  mainly 
on  mince  meat  and  rich  cakes,  although 
there  was  a  continual  demand  for  chicken 
broth  and  bouillon,  which  Mrs.  Bevan 
made  so  excellent  that  they  were  largely 
called  for. 

Plumstead  party  -  givers  always  sent  to 
Dorothy  for  fancy  cakes  and  chicken  salad, 
and  often  asked  her  to  invent  some  new 


154  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

dainty  for  them.  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  all 
that  she  did  in  this  way,  but  space  forbids. 
One  thing  she  rejoiced  over,  besides  putting 
a  way  of  making  money  into  Aunt  Bevan's 
hands,  she  believed  she  had  been  able  to 
help  Mrs.  Garland. 

Eveiy  Plumstead  person  who  sent  for 
macaroons  she  had  for  months  sent  to  that 
vivacious  lady,  Mrs.  Garland,  who  had  ea- 
gerly thanked  her. 

"If  I  thought  you  would  not  mind,  I 
would  like  to  do  several  things  that  you 
don't  do  now.  My  married  sister  would  get 
me  a  good  many  orders  for  candies  and 
cakes  and  patties." 

"  Do  anything,  dear  Mrs.  Garland,  and 
be  sure  the  better  you  succeed,  the  better 
pleased  I  shall  be." 

For  several  weeks  that  winter  Dorothy 
saw  nothing  of  her  friend,  but  had  freauent 

O  JL 

little  notes,  asking  "  How  shall  I  do  so  and 
so  ?  "  —  "  Will  you  be  so  angelic  as  to  give 
me  a  recipe  for  so  and  so  ?  "  Sometimes  a 
sample  of  her  work  would  come  ;  "  Will  you 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  155 

please  tell  me  what  is  the  matter  with  this 
thing  ?  Do  what  I  will  it  won't,"  etc. 
Sometimes  Dorothy  at  a  glance  could  solve 
her  difficulties,  sometimes  not ;  but  from  it 
all  she  gathered  that  Mrs.  Garland  was 
prosperous  and  busy.  She  herself  had  sent 
many  customers  to  her,  and  she  knew  Mrs. 
Garland's  own  friends  had  been  active. 

After  New  Year,  being  comparatively  at 
leisure,  Dorothy  went  to  see  her. 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  of  all  people  you  are  the 
very  one  I  wanted  to  see :  do  come  in." 

"  I  want  to  hear  all  you  have  been  doing. 
I  know  you  have  been  busy." 

"  Yes,  busy,  but  as  usual  with  me,  I  may 
work  my  fingers  off  and  things  will  go 
wrong.  I  had  a  letter  to-day  that  is  driving 
me  wild  to  know  what  it  means.  My  sister 
in  Yonkers  rampaged  round  in  her  dear, 
energetic  way  to  get  orders  for  me,  and  sent 
me  several  for  Christmas,  and  I  filled  them ; 
then  came  a  batch  of  others  for  New  Year's, 

* 

and,  as  they  were  for  her  near  neighbors, 
Alfred,  my  brother-in-law,  good-naturedly 


156  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

said  they  might  be  sent  to  his  office  and  he 
would  take  them  out  to  her.  There  were 
six  pounds  of  macaroons.  I  knew  they 
would  go  better  by  hand  than  by  express,  so 
I  asked  Mr.  Phillips,  who  goes  to  town  every 
day,  if  I  sent  them  on  the  29th  to  the  con- 
ductor of  his  car,  if  he  would  take  charge 
of  them  and  engage  a  messenger  for  me  to 
carry  them  to  Alfred's  office.  I  sent  them 
punctually,  and  now  comes  an  exasperating 
wail  from  Kate." 

She  took  up  the  letter  as  she  spoke  and 
read  :  — 

"  Never,  never,  Clara,  so  long  as  I  live, 
will  I  bestir  myself  for  you  again !  Such 
a  mess  as  I've  got  into,  ever  so  many  of 
my  friends  sending  all  New  Year's  morn- 
ing for  their  wretched  cakes  —  and  I,  who 
relied  on  you,  had  nothing  to  say.  The 
large  cakes  came  yesterday  (the  day  after 
New  Year's),  and  I  must  keep  them  myself, 
for  I  could  never  have  the  face  to  send  them. 

• 

The  macaroons  have  never  come.  I  have 
enough  fruit-cake  to  last  me  till  next  New 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  157 

Year's,  but  never  again  will  I  make  such  a 
fool  of  myself." 

"  Now  did  you  ever  know  anything  so 
maddening  ?  to  be  scolded  like  that  after  I 
worked  so  hard  !  It 's  just  my  luck." 

"  But  your  sister  must  have  felt  terribly, 
and  it  is  such  a  pity  to  discourage  her. 
Can't  you  guess  how  the  mistake  hap- 
pened? Did  you  send  word  to  Mr.  Phil- 
lips the  night  before  to  remind  him  that 
the  box  would  be  on  board  his  car  ?  " 

"  No,  of  course  not  :  I  was  awfully  busy, 
and  it  was  only  a  couple  of  days  before  I 
had  spoken  to  him." 

"  Then  I  would  inquire  of  the  conductor 
if  they  were  claimed ;  but  how  about  the 
large  cakes  ?  " 

"  Well,  that 's  the  beautiful  express  com- 
pany !  I  sent  them  the  day  before  New 
Year's,  and  of  course  they  ought  to  have 
arrived  New  Year's  morning." 

"  Holiday  times  are  busy ;  I  would  always 
allow  for  possible  delays." 

"  But  the  cakes  were  not  ready !   My  oven 


158  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

would  not  bake,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  when 
I  took  them  out  of  the  oven  they  were  white 
at  the  bottom,  although  I  had  kept  them  in 
three  hours  —  so  instead  of  icing  them  they 
had  to  go  in  again  next  day ;  how  it  will 
agree  with  them  I  could  not  tell,  but  I 
thought  it  did  not  hurt  plum-pudding  to 
be  half  done  and  left,  and  I  could  not  see 
how  it  would  hurt  rich  cake.  I  had  a  small 
one  left  over  and  cut  it,  and  I  find  it  deli- 
cious." 

"  How  did  they  look  ?  "  asked  Dorothy, 
bravely  keeping  her  countenance. 

"  They  did  not  look  on  the  underside  just 
as  they  ought,  but  I  cleverly  got  over  that ; 
I  turned  them  upside  down  and  iced  them 
beautifully,  and  if  they  had  arrived  in  time 
my  customers  would  have  had  an  iced  cake 
for  the  same  price  as  a  plain  one  —  and  they 
are  always  dearer." 

"  I  know,  I  never  could  understand  why, 
as  the  sugar  weighs  as  much  as  anything 
and  is  the  least  costly  part  of  the  cake." 

Mrs.  Garland  left  the  room  and  returned 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  159 

with  a  wedge  of  the  richest  fruit-cake  on  a 
plate. 

"  There,  I  want  your  opinion :  I  did  not 
ice  the  cake  I  kept  home." 

The  part  of  the  cake  that  had  been  in  the 
pan  was  a  gray  color,  quite  soft  and  sticky, 
and  Dorothy's  heart  sank  when  she  saw  the 
large  piece  she  had  to  eat,  and  unluckily 
could  not  refuse,  for  she  had  more  than  once 
said  to  Mrs.  Garland  that  she  was  very 
fond  of  rich  fruit-cake  which  never  dis- 
agreed with  her. 

"  Is  n't  that  a  good  cake  ?  " 

If  Dorothy  had  only  not  been  Dorothy 
for  the  time  being,  then  she  might  have 
dared  to  be  sincere,  but  she  could  not  dare 
to  criticise,  nor  indeed  was  she  asked  to  do 
aught  but  eulogize ;  she  therefore  said,  as 
she  swallowed  one  sticky  mouthful,  — 

"  It  is  very  rich  "  — 

"Yes,  I  know  it  is  one  of  the  richest 
cakes  made,  but  how  about  the  flavor  ?  " 

It  was  really  quite  devoid  of  flavor,  only 
sweet  and  rich,  but  utterly  flat. 


160  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

"I  think  you  might  safely  add  more 
spice." 

Mrs.  Garland  started  up  tragically ;  spice, 
—  spice  —  then  she  sat  down  in  a  paroxysm 
of  laughter. 

"  I  can't  help  it,  as  it  is  so  utterly  absurd, 
but  I  knew  there  was  something  I  had  for- 
gotten all  the  time  I  was  making  it ;  I  could 
not  imagine  what.  I  went  over  it  all  in  my 
own  mind,  and  now  I  remember  there 's  all 
my  fine  druggist  spices  lying  in  the  papers. 
I  ought  to  cry,  I  suppose,  instead  of  laugh, 
but  it  does  seem  so  ridiculous  that  you 
should  sit  so  seriously  there  and  with  a  word 
remind  me  ;  yet  I  tasted  and  tasted  and 
missed  nothing." 

"  Well,  it  is  almost  well  it  did  not  reach 
its  destination,  is  it  not  ?  "  asked  Dorothy. 

"  Oh,  pshaw !  you  don't  think  if  I  could 
not  miss  it  they  would  ?  You  must  re- 
member that  all  cake  eaters  are  not  like 
you,  always  on  the  qui  vive  to  detect  flavors." 

Dorothy's  wedge  of  cake  was  diminishing 
but  very  slowly,  crumb  by  crumb,  when  hap- 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  161 

pily  a  ring  at  the  door-bell  took  Mrs.  Gar- 
land's attention,  Dorothy  whipped  it  into 
her  pocket  and  Mrs.  Garland  returned. 

"  The  mystery  is  solved,"  she  said  gayly 
—  bringing  in  a  slip  of  paper.  "  Here  's  a 
note  from  Benton,  the  car  conductor  :  — 

"  '  Dear  Madam  :  Your  box  has  not  been 
claimed,  and  has  been  going  up  and  down 
with  me  every  trip  for  the  last  four  days. 
What  shall  I  do  with  it?'" 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Garland,"  cried  Dorothy  in 
consternation,  "  the  macaroons  will  be  in 
crumbs !  " 

"  I  know  it,  but  it  's  no  use  crying  for 
spilt  milk,  and  if  there  is  one  thing  Edith 
and  I  dote  on  it 's  macaroon  custard ; 
crumbs  make  it  just  as  well  as  whole 
macaroons.  Now  we  shall  have  to  make 
our  dinner  on  it  every  day  for  a  week !  " 

"  And  yet."  thought  Dorothy  as  she  went 
home,  "  she  cries  her  eyes  out  sometimes 
that  she  is  so  dependent  and  so  penniless. 
I  suppose  this  is  the  real  reason  why,  with 
all  her  cleverness  and  accomplishments,  she 


162  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

cannot  get  along.  Of  course  she  will  be 
asked  to  make  no  more  cake,  and  after  this 
I  may  not  dare  to  recommend  her." 

Dorothy,  finding  that  May  would  not  take 
kindly  to  candy,  would  not  give  attention 
enough  to  it  to  insure  it  being  always  per- 
fect, early  in  the  year  had  told  all  she  knew 
to  Mrs.  Garland,  who  had  seen  much  when 
working  with  her.  At  first  she  had  taken 
gladly  to  it ;  orders  came,  but  gradually 
dropped  off.  This  Dorothy  had  wondered 
at,  but  now  understood.  She  could  see  that 
Mrs.  Garland's  haphazard  way  would  go 
through  everything  she  did.  •  And  yet  how 
pitiable  it  was ! 

Dorothy  was  a  very  happy  young  woman. 
She  had  made  a  home  for  herself  and  sister. 
She  had  helped  her  dear  aunt  to  make  a 
little  money.  "  A  fortune  to  me,  Dodo, 
when  you  remember  that  before  you  came 
I  was  thankful  to  get  twenty-six  cents  a 
week  for  my  potcheese."  The  money,  little 
as  it  was,  made  the  hard  farm  life  compar- 
atively luxurious;  they  need  not  now  sell 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  163 

eggs  and  chickens,  nor  were  they  vegetarian 
in  their  diet. 

And  yet  it  almost  looked  as  if  May  was 
right,  and  Dorothy's  work  will  not  need  to 
last  very  long,  for  when  she  had  been  three 
years  in  "  business  "  John  Lortain  astounded 
her  by  asking  her  to  become  his  wife.  She 
had  looked  on  him  as  being  in  love  with 
May,  and  laughingly  told  him  she  was  too 
busy  to  marry.  He  went  away  to  Europe, 
but  he  is  coining  back  soon,  and  Mrs.  Bevan 
knows  it  is  to  ask  Dorothy  again.  How  that 
artful  woman  knows,  I  cannot  guess,  but  she 
knows  too  that  Dorothy  treasures  every  bit 
of  paper  that  contains  a  notice  of  his  pic- 
tures, and  I  'm  afraid  some  one  has  betrayed 
that  fact  to  him.  Mr.  Bevan  has  several 
times  carried  a  letter  in  his  pocket  to  be 
mailed,  addressed  to  John  Lortain,  Rome, 
and  latterly  they  were  addressed  "Lon- 
don ; "  but  never  an  idea  of  this  fact  does 
Dorothy  have,  although  it  has  often  crossed 
her  mind,  since  the  struggle,  and  doubt  has 


164  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

ceased,  and  she  has  anchored  her  bark  in 
the  calm  waters  of  the  haven  of  success, 
that  it  would  be  very  pleasant  to  be  making 
good  things  for  John  and  his  friends. 


CONTENTS  OF  DOROTHY'S  NOTE-BOOK. 

THE  reader  has  been  told  that  Dorothy 
made  a  note  of  her  aunt's  economies,  and  as 
some  of  her  friends  may  be  glad  to  make 
money  go  far,  as  well  as  to  earn  it,  I  here 
append  the  most  useful,  and,  so  far  as  I  can 
tell,  the  least  known.  They  may  help  to 
make  savory  dinners  where  they  would  be 
otherwise  insipid,  and  meat  possible  where 
there  are  very  few  cents  to  buy  it. 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  Mrs.  Bevan, 
until  Dorothy  came,  had  known  a  lack  of 
money  equaled  only  by  that  of  the  poorest 
laborer's  wife,  at  the  same  time  that  she  had 
needs  and  tastes  quite  unknown  to  the  lat- 
ter. She  had,  besides,  the  instinct  of  a  lady 
to  hide  her  extreme  poverty.  Although  the 
laborers  and  cottagers  around  had  more  to 
spend  per  head  on  food  than  Mrs.  Bevan, 


166  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

they  never  dreamed  that  such  was  the  case  ; 
and  although  the  Bevans  were  known  to  be 
poor,  no  one  ever  suspected  how  poor.  But 
little  as  the  money  Mrs.  Bevan  had  to  buy 
food,  other  than  what  grew  on  the  farm,  was, 
by  using  her  brains  they  did  not  live  coarse- 
ly or  badly.  The  bit  of  hard  meat  fried  in 
fat,  or  the  thick  slices  of  pork,  which  made 
the  too  frequent  food  of  those  around  her, 
would  have  starved  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bevan. 
They  must  have  savory  food  or  they  could 
not  eat ;  they  must  have  it  nourishing,  and 
it  must  cost  very  little.  How  to  attain  these 
ends  was  the  problem  Mrs.  Bevan  had  to 
solve  during  the  first  year  of  their  poverty. 
Her  time,  of  course,  was  her  capital,  as  it  is 
that  of  every  wife  and  mother  who  is  not 
driven  by  sad  necessity  to  sell  her  time  to 
some  one  else  for  actual  money.  Mrs. 
Bevan  brought  the  advantage  of  an  open 
educated  mind  to  help  her,  and  then  recol- 
lections of  observations  made  during  long 
residence  in  Scotland  and  France,  both 
countries  of  thrifty  good  living,  came  to  her 
aid. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  167 

It  was  useless  to  remember  that  peas, 
beans,  and  lentils  contain  more  flesh  form- 
ing qualities  than  three  times  the  weight  of 
meat,  that  we  require  so  much  albumen,  so 
much  nitrogen,  etc.,  in  our  food  ;  she  knew 
quite  well  they  could  not  live  by  chemistry 
alone,  and  if  the  flesh  formers,  and  heat 
givers,  and  bone  and  muscle  makers,  were 
not  prepared  into  food  that  she  and  her  hus- 
band could  enjoy  as  well  as  swallow,  the 
chemical  qualities  would  avail  them  nought. 

But  she  knew  also  these  qualities  must 
not  be  disregarded,  and  set  her  mind  to 
work  to  choose  and  make  dishes  that  would 
be  cheap,  furnish  highly  nourishing  food, 
and  yet  be  very  palatable.  She  remembered 
that  beef  suet  was  as  nourishing  as  roast 
beef  when  mixed  with  flour.  Therefore 
when  she  made  puddings  or  dumplings  she 
was  careful  to  use  suet  in  place  of  lard. 
Beef  dripping  too  is  far  more  nourishing 
than  lard,  but  of  this  they  had  little  because 
roast  beef  was  a  very  rare  dish  with  them. 
Then  she  remembered  the  excellent  Scotch 


168  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

haggis,  made  of  materials  thrown  away  in 
this  country,  and  ox-tails,  that  dainty  of  the 
English,  that  at  the  local  butcher's  brought 
no  price  at  all ;  beef  heart,  which,  if  it  cost 
a  dollar,  would  be  looked  on  as  a  very  fine 
dish,  but  only  costing  ten  cents,  and  weigh- 
ing often  three  pounds,  its  good  qualities  are 
too  often  disdained  even  by  the  poorest. 

Bread  and  cheese  are  very  nourishing,  but 
one  does  not  want  to  eat  them  too  often. 
Mrs.  Bevan,  however,  had  several  dishes 
made  of  cheese  and  flour,  with  sometimes 
butter  and  eggs,  which  made  savory  meals 
of  otherwise  dry  ones.  So  good  did  their 
kitchen  smell  at  meal  hours,  that  many  a 
one,  plodding  home  to  his  ordinary  coarse, 
unsavory  fare,  would  feel  a  hungry  ache. 

One  of  the  best  of  these  dishes  was  also 
one  of  the  cheapest,  for  when  Mrs.  Bevan 
and  her  husband  were  alone  it  was  so  much 
too  large  a  dish  that  she  often  sent,  after 
their  own  second  dinner  from  it,  a  comfort- 
able dish  to  two  very  old  people  who  lived 
near,  and  scarcely  ever  tasted  well  cooked 
food  unless  she  did  send  it. 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  169 

This  good  dish  was  made  of  haslet  (or 
pluck),  of  pig  when  she  could  get  it,  but  at 
other  times  of  lamb  or  of  sheep,  which  the 
butcher  always  sells  for  ten  cents. 

MOCK  HAGGIS. 

Detach  liver  and  heart  from  the  windpipe, 
leave  the  lights  on  it,  wash  all  well,  and  put 
the  lights  on  in  a  saucepan  of  salted  water ; 
leave  the  pipe  hanging  out  so  that  the  lights 
may  disgorge.  They  require  at  least  two 
hours'  boiling,  and  are  better  prepared  the 
day  before  ;  parboil  the  liver  and  heart  for 
twenty  minutes,  preserve  the  water ;  cut  the 
liver,  heart,  and  half  the  boiled  lights  into 
small  dice.  Use,  if  possible,  a  stone  pot 
with  a  cover ;  lay  at  the  bottom  three  or  four 
shaved  slices  of  fat  bacon,  pork,  or  the  fat  of 
boiled  ham  (unless  you  have  a  pig's  haslet, 
when  there  is  a  delicious  frilled  fat  that 
should  be  with  it).  Put  a  layer  of  the 
liver,  heart,  and  lights,  and  then  one  of 
forcemeat  made  of  half  a  pint  of  bread 
crumbs,  two  teaspoonfuls  of  sage  leaves, 


170  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

dried  and  rubbed  between  the  hands  very 
fine,  and  two  large  onions,  parboiled  and 
chopped  fine  (after  boiling),  mixed  to- 
gether with  a  good  teaspoonful  of  salt  and 
a  scant  saltspoonful  of  pepper.  After  a 
thin  layer  of  this  put  another  of  the  liver, 
lights,  and  heart,  then  more  forcemeat,  and 
so  on  until  all  is  in ;  then  pour  in  a  pint 
of  the  water  the  liver  was  boiled  in,  put 
on  the  cover,  and  tie  stout  brown  paper 
over  all,  or  make  flour  and  water  paste  and 
lay  around  the  cover  to  keep  in  steam  ;  set 
the  jar  in  the  oven,  and  leave  it  to  cook 
slowly  three  hours.  When  the  lid  is  re- 
moved and  the  dish  turned  out,  the  fra- 
grance will  remove  any  doubts  as  to  haslet 
being  acceptable  food. 

Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  dish, 
which  at  the  outside  will  cost  twelve  cents, 
is  the  identical  haggis  that  Sir  Walter  Scott 
loved,  Burns  sang,  and  Christopher  North 
took  the  second  prize  for  making.  The 
same,  all  but  a  cup  of  fried  oatmeal,  which 
is  mixed  with  the  true  Scotch  dish,  which 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  171 

differs  further  in  being  boiled  in  a  bag,  or  in 
the  thoroughly  cleaned  stomach  of  a  sheep, 
neither  of  which  would  add  to  its  excel- 
lence. 

So  dear  is  this  dish  to  the  Scotch  that 
in  Montreal  and  other  cities  with  a  large 
Scotch  population  haggis  is  imported  in 
cans.  Any  one  willing  to  try  the  oatmeal 
will  almost  double  the  economy  of  the  dish, 
and  have  the  genuine  Scotch  dainty. 

Another  way  of  cooking  liver  seemed  to 
Dorothy  worth  noting  down,  because  it  also 
seemed  to  make  ten  cents  go  a  long  way. 

It  was  sheep's  liver  this  time,  and  the 
lights  were  given  to  the  dog.  The  heart 
was  laid  aside  but  not  split.  The  liver  only 
to  be  washed,  dried,  and  floured,  then  holes 
made  through  it  about  two  inches  apart, 
and  strips  of  fat  pork  or  bacon  as  thick  as 
a  finger  inserted.  The  liver  thus  larded  is 
to  be  put  into  a  dripping-pan,  about  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  flour  dredged  over  the  bottom 
of  the  pan,  baked  in  a  quick  oven  three 
quarters  of  an  hour.  When  done  put  the 


172  GENTLE   BREADWINNERS. 

liver  on  a  hot  platter,  pour  a  teacup  of 
hot  water  in  the  pan,  stir  over  the  stove 
till  all  the  gravy  clinging  to  the  pan  is 
dissolved,  then  add  a  teaspoonful  of  walnut 
catsup  (see  recipe)  and  salt  and  pepper  to 
taste. 

The  heart  still  remains  for  a  second  meal. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bevan  had  always  used  it  for 
breakfast. 

STUFFED  LAMB'S  OR  SHEEP'S  HEART.  — 
Trim  off  the  gristly  part  at  the  top  called 
the  "  deaf  ear,"  squeeze  out  any  blood  there 
may  be  in  it,  and  wash  it.  Then  stuff  the 
three  holes  full  of  nice  stuffing,  made  as 
follows :  — 

Half  a  cup  of  bread  crumbs,  half  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  finely  chopped  parsley,  and  a 
pinch  of  thyme  (between  thumb  and  fore- 
finger), half  a  saltspoonful  of  salt,  and  pep- 
per enough  to  lay  on  the  end  of  a  penknife. 
Mix  together  with  a  good  teaspoonful  of 
butter,  cover  the  top  of  the  heart,  to  keep 
the  stuffing  in,  with  two  slices  of  fat  pork, 
flour  it  slightly,  and  put  it  into  a  sharp 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  173 

oven  to  bake  in  twenty  minutes  or  half  an 
hour.  It  should  be  brown,  yet  not  over  done. 

HASHED  LIVER.  —  If  there  is  any  cold 
baked  liver  left,  chop  it  fine,  melt  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  butter  in  a  saucepan,  add  one 
of  flour  to  it.  Let  both  bubble  together 
over  the  fire  one  minute  ;  put  in  the  liver, 
and  just  enough  water  or  gravy  to  moisten. 
A  teaspoonful  of  catsup  or  a  dozen  drops  of 
vinegar  improves  this  excellent  dish. 

BEEF  HEART  KOASTED.  —  This  is  pre- 
pared exactly  as  lamb's  heart,  only  before 
stuffing  it  should  be  boiled  gently  half  an 
hour  to  prevent  it  chilling. 

STEWED  KNUCKLE  OF  VEAL.  The  price 
of  this  should  not  exceed  fifteen  cents  or 
twenty  cents,  and  besides  the  excellent  soup 
the  bone  makes,  there  is  usually  a  good  deal 
of  meat  left  on  it.  Let  the  butcher  cleave 
it  in  several  places,  and  put  it  to  boil  with 
a  small  carrot,  turnip,  onion,  and  a  table- 
spoonful  of  rice.  If  there  is  not  more  than 
a  pound  of  meat  on  it,  put  to  it  two  quarts  of 
water,  and  if  you  have  it  a  tiny  slice  of  lean 


174  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

ham.  Let  it  cook  two  hours  and  a  half  so 
slowly  that  you  can  hardly  see  the  water 
move  in  the  pot.  Then  remove  the  meat 
from  the  bone,  lay  it  in  a  hot  dish,  and 
make  the  following  sauce  to  pour  over  it: 
Melt  together  one  tablespoonful  each  of 
butter  and  flour,  let  them  cook  together  one 
minute,  stirring  all  the  time ;  then  take  a 
half  pint  of  the  liquor  in  which  the  meat  was 
cooked,  and  pour  quickly  to  the  butter  and 
flour ;  then  stir  in  one  beaten  egg  and  a  few 
drops  of  lemon  juice,  or  a  teaspoonful  of 
chopped  pickled  cucumbers.  A  small  piece 
of  boiled  bacon  or  corned  pork  (boiled  sepa- 
rately) is  an  excellent  accompaniment  to  this 
dish.  Use  the  liquor  for  rice  or  celery  soup. 
BRAISED  BEEF. —  For  this  choose  any  of 
the  cheaper  parts  of  beef,  but  it  is  better  to 
choose  the  chuck  rib  or  some  part  where  fat 
and  lean  run  together,  than  a  solid  part  like 
cross  rib.  If  the  latter  is  to  be  used,  how- 
ever, it  should  be  larded  by  making  holes 
through  the  meat  and  inserting  strips  of  fat 
pork ;  then  flour  it.  Place  this  in  a  saucepan" 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  175 

with  a  tablespoonful  of  vinegar,  and  cover 
closely ;  place  the  saucepan  where  the  meat 
will  brown,  but  not  burn  ;  when  it  has  cooked 
one  hour,  turn  it  if  it  is  nicely  browned,  and 
add  pepper  and  salt ;  cook  another  hour  or 
more,  according  to  size,  allowing  half  an 
hour  to  a  pound  of  meat.  When  taken 
from  the  pot,  pour  the  gravy  with  it, 
then  pour  a  gill  of  boiling  water  into  the 
saucepan  to  rinse  off  the  gravy  clinging  to 
the  sides. 

This  makes  an  excellent  substitute  for 
roast  beef  at  half  the  price,  but  true  braised 
beef  should  have  vegetables  with  it ;  half  a 
small  carrot,  onion,  and  turnip  cut  fine,  a 
pinch,  between  thumb  and  finger,  of  marjo- 
ram, and  a  bay  leaf  if  liked.  These  are  to 
be  added  to  the  beef  prepared  as  described 
above,  but  the  vinegar  may  be  omitted,  and, 
when  half  cooked,  a  small  cup  of  boiling 
water  added. 

PEA  SOUP  WITHOUT  MEAT.  —  Soak  at 
night  a  quart  of  peas,  then  cut  small  two 
onions,  a  carrot,  and  a  head  of  celery. 


176  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

Drain  the  peas,  put  them  and  the  vege- 
tables into  three  quarts  of  water;  pass 
through  a  sieve  or  fine  colander  and  return ; 
let  the  soup  boil  again,  and  stir  in  a  table- 
spoonful  of  butter,  and  add  two  teaspoonfuls 
of  salt  and  half  a  saltspoonf ul  of  pepper. 
To  have  this  good  soup  at  its  best,  fried 
bread  must  be  served  with  it,  which  is  also 
a  great  improvement  to  potato,  bean  soup, 
or  other  thick  soup. 

To  FRY  BREAD. —  Cut  stale  bread  into 
dice  half  an  inch  square.  Make  two  table- 
spoonfuls  of  nice  dripping  or  lard  very  hot 
in  a  little  saucepan  or  frying-pan  and  drop 
in  the  bread  dice  ;  they  should  fry  golden 
brown  in  one  minute  ;  take  them  up,  lay 
them  on  butcher's  paper,  and  serve  them  on 
a  separate  dish  from  the  soup,  so  that  they 
may  be  dropped  in  and  eaten  crisp. 

CELERY  SOUP. —  Cut  four  heads  of  cel- 
ery small,  one  small  onion,  and  a  small  piece 
of  carrot;  slowly  simmer  in  one  quart  of 
water ;  in  another  saucepan  have  a  quart 
of  skiin  milk  and  two  tablespoonfuls  of 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  177 

rice;  simmer  these  till  the  rice  will  mash, 
add  more  milk  if  it  is  thicker  than  very  thick 
cream,  strain  the  liquor  from  the  celery, 
mashing  it  through  a  colander ;  stir  this  to 
the  rice  milk,  add  two  tablespoonfuls  of 
butter  and  two  teaspoonfuls  of  salt,  and 
very  little  pepper  ;  serve  with  fried  bread. 

CUCUMBER  SOUP.  —  Boil  half  a  dozen 
small  cucumbers,  or  two  good  sized  ones, 
peeled  and  cut  in  quarters,  with  an  onion 
sliced,  in  a  quart  of  water,  and  a  teaspoon- 
f  ul  of  salt,  till  they  are  tender  enough  to  go 
through  a  colander.  Stir,  in  another  sauce- 
pan, a  rounded  tablespoonful  of  flour  and 
one  of  butter  (two  if  you  can  spare  it)  ; 
when  they  bubble  stir  to  it  the  cucumber  and 
onion  pulp,  and  add  a  pint  of  milk ;  stir  till 
thick  and  boiling,  then  add  another  quart  of 
milk,  and  let  the  whole  boil  together :  adding 
the  milk  in  two  portions  is  only  to  save  time 
and  stirring,  for  if  it  all  went  in  together 
it  must  be  stirred  till  boiling,  and  three  pints 
takes  longer  than  one ;  if  the  milk  is  made 
boiling  hot  before  being  added,  then  the 


178  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

soup  is  made  at  once  by  putting  the  two 
together,  and,  letting  them  boil  once,  add 
a  teaspoonful  of  salt  and  a  sixth  of  one  of 
pepper.  Serve  with  fried  bread. 

POTATO  HASH.  —  One  pound  of  potatoes 
boiled  and  chopped,  one  boiled  onion  also 
chopped,  and  a  teaspoonful  of  finely  chopped 
parsley ;  put  these  on  the  fire  with  half  a 
pint  of  milk,  a  pinch  of  pepper ;  when  it  has 
stewed  gently  five  minutes,  beat  two  eggs, 
stir  a  tablespoonful  of  butter  into  the  po- 
tatoes, and  then  add  the  eggs ;  stir  gently 
till  the  whole  looks  like  custard,  then  remove 
before  the  eggs  curdle.  This  may  now  be 
put  into  the  frying-pan  or  oven  and  browned 
or  eaten  white. 

VARIATION  ON  THE  FOREGOING.  —  When 
the  potato  hash  is  made,  put  it  in  a  greased 
pie-dish;  when  half  full  sprinkle  thickly  with 
grated  cheese,  smooth  the  top,  and  grate 
cheese  thickly  over  ;  brown  in  the  oven. 

MRS.  BEVAN'S  CREAM  TOAST.  —  Make 
cream  toast  as  usual,  only  when  you  put  the 
toast  in  the  dish  grate  a  thick  layer  of  cheese 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  179 

over  each  slice  ;  stir  a  teaspoonf  ul  of  grated 
cheese  into  the  dressing,  let  it  boil  once  and 
pour  it  over  the  toast,  then  set  in  the  oven 
for  five  minutes. 

CHEESE  PUDDING.  —  Make  a  light  batter 
of  two  eggs,  one  cup  of  milk,  one  cup  of  flour, 
half  a  saltspoonful  of  salt,  and  one  teaspoon- 
ful  of  sugar.  Beat  hard,  then  stir  in  a  cup 
of  grated  cheese.  Grate  a  little  over  the 
top,  drop  half  a  dozen  bits  of  butter  over  the 
surface,  and  bake  in  a  sharp  oven  one  hour. 

For  all  these  recipes  good  rich  American 
cheese  must  be  used.  A  poor,  dry  one  will 
not  be  good.  It  must  be  grated  on  a  large 
grater  (or,  to  makeshift,  may  be  shaved  in 
the  absence  of  a  grater)  ;  fine  cheese  that  is 
getting  dry  or  too  near  the  crust  is  excellent 
for  this  purpose. 

In  these  recipes  two  points  were  kept  in 
view  by  Mrs.  Be  van,  nourishment  and  econ- 
omy ;  wherever  milk  is  directed,  when  cream 
was  abundant  she  would  enrich  with  it,  and 
dishes  with  eggs  were  only  made  when  eggs 
were  plentiful ;  many  a  dish  is  costly  at  one 


180  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

season  which  at  another  is  the  cheapest  pos- 
sible. Butter  being  so  highly  nourishing 
and  wholesome,  she  used  as  freely  as  she 
could  when  cheap,  and  only  replaced  with 
dripping  when  very  dear. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  many 
things  that  are  expensive  to  buy  in  cities  are, 
or  may  be,  cheap  enough  if  you  have  the 
ground  to  grow  them,  so  Mrs.  Bevan  always 
took  care  to  have  all  sweet  herbs  growing, 
and  also  celery ;  she  spent  once  in  several 
years  five  cents  for  bay  leaves,  and  kept  a 
corked  bottle  of  mixed  spices.  To  cook  so 
that  nothing  may  taste  flat  and  insipid,  and 
yet  that  nothing  be  too  highly  spiced,  re- 
quires intelligence. 

A  good  natural  cook  is  something  of  a 
natural  chemist.  She  is  acute  about  flavors, 
and  will  know,  if  she  really  cares  to  think, 
that  there  may  be  something  she  has  that 
will  give  just  the  flavor  that  is  lacking. 
Sometimes  a  soup  or  stew  is  greatly  im- 
proved by  a  saltspoonful  of  sugar.  Yet, 
only  a  cook's  instinct  will  tell  when  that  is ; 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  181 

sometimes  a  squeeze  of  lemon  juice,  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  vinegar,  or  half  a  tomato,  or  a 
pinch  of  the  mixed  spices  for  which  I  will 
give  a  recipe.  The  great  thing  for  the 
young  cook  is  to  take  a  little  thought  as  to 
this  matter.  But  I  must  on  no  account  be 
understood  as  advocating  individual  changes 
in  standard  recipes  or  in  any  fine  cooking. 
Mrs.  Bevan  seldom  could  use  an  ordinary 
recipe,  because  she  had  too  often  to  make  a 
meal  with  "just  what  she  had  in  the  house," 
often  very  scanty  or  very  incongruous  mate- 
rials ;  and  knowing  well  the  great  help  of 
flavorings,  and  the  very  little  they  cost,  she 
gave  herself  every  advantage  that  they  af- 
forded. 

But  the  great  art  she  showed  was  that 
while  availing  herself  of  the  subtle  pi- 
quancy of  spice  and  herb,  she  never  over- 
did them.  One  clove  will  often  give  rich- 
ness while  three  or  four  would  spoil  the 
dish.  The  idea  in  using  flavoring  is  for  the 
eater  not  to  be  able  to  say  "  this  is  flavored 
with  thyme,  or  marjoram,  or  onion,"  or  any 
special  spice. 


182  GENTLE  BREADWINNERS. 

To  be  aware  of  a  toothsome  something 
which  gives  pleasure  to  the  palate,  but  which 
brings  no  certainty  to  the  mind,  is  what  is 
to  be  aimed  at  in  cooking.  Many  people 
think  they  dislike  spice  and  herbs,  because 
they  have  never  known  them  properly  used. 
They  are  not  properly  used  if  the  eater  can 
say  distinctly  that  they  are  present  in  the 
dish  he  is  eating.  (To  this  rule  there  are 
certain  exceptions,  as  when  a  dish  takes  its 
name  from  a  spice  or  herb,  —  as  spiced 
meats,  or  pickles,  or  parsley  sauce,  etc.  In 
stews  and  soups  and  sauces  the  rule  holds 
good  that  the  flavoring  matter  must  not  be 
definable.) 

BOTTLED  MIXED  SPICE.  —  To  prepare 
this  properly  the  ingredients  must  be  thor- 
oughly dried  in  order  to  powder  and  sift 
easily.  Put  into  a  bowl  one  teaspoonful  of 
thyme  finely  powdered,  the  same  of  bay 
leaves  and  pepper,  a  saltspoonful  each  of 
marjoram,  savory,  and  grated  lemon  peel,  a 
quarter  of  an  ounce  of  powdered  clove  and 
mutmeg ;  sift  all  together  three  or  four  times, 


GENTLE  BREADWINNERS.  183 

then  add  to  the  whole  one  quarter  the  quan- 
tity of  salt.  That  is  to  say,  to  every  four 
teaspoonf uls  of  the  powder  put  one  of  salt. 
Keep  in  a  wide  mouthed  glass  bottle  well 
corked. 

A  saltspoonful  of  this  mixture  to  a  hash 
or  stew  makes  a  delicious  seasoning  accept- 
able even  to  those  who  believe  they  do  not 
like  herbs  or  spices. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Africaines         ........  Ill 

Almond  Macaroons         ......         65 

American  Walnut  Catsup  .....     73 

Beef  Heart,  Roasted 173 

Bevans 105 

Bottled  Mixed  Spice 182 

Bouche"es  de  Dames        .         .         .         .         .         .108 

Braised  Beef      ........  174 

Browned  Potato  Hash  with  Cheese         .         .         .       178 
Buttermilk  Pones       .          ......     20 

Candied  Lemon  Peels     ......         92 

Candied  Orange  Peels          .          .....     92 

Candied  Peaches      .......         59 

Candied  Pears      ........     57 

Candy-Making         .- 144 

Canned  Apple  Sauce 76 

Celery  Soup 123 

Cheese  Pudding 179 

Chicken  Broth  (portable) 122 

Consomme"  (portable) 176 

Cucumber  Ragout 72 

Cucumber  Soup 177 

Currants,  to  clean         .         .         .         .         .         .         .94 


186  INDEX. 

English  Twelfth-Night  Cake          .         .  .141 

Experiments  in  Candy-Making   ....    131-136 

French  Icing 48 

Fried  Bread 176 

Gateau  de  Riz 103 

Genoa  Cake 42-45 

Haggis 162 

Lamb's  Heart,  Stuffed 172 

Liver,  Roasted 171 

Macaroons -    .         .         .         .65 

Macaroons  (Spanish) 120 

Marzipan 45 

Mince  Meat 90 

Mrs.  Sevan's  Cream  Toast 178 

Pea  Soup  without  Meat    ......     175 

Potato  Hash 178 

Puff  Paste 64 

Raisins,  to  seed 94 

Sally  Lunn 122 

Stewed  Knuckle  of  Veal 1*73 

Vanilla  Paste 121 

Venetian  Cakes 96 


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